Utah County fears gridlock

OREM — Orem Mayor Jerry Washburn said it is time that Utah County's transportation needs get a little attention from the governor's office and the state Legislature.

"The perception in much of Utah is that Utah ends at the Point of the Mountain," Washburn said Wednesday at a Utah Valley State College panel discussion. Something needs to be done to Utah County's transportation system before it becomes total gridlock, Washburn said.

Each year, an additional 2,000 cars are added to the I-15 freeway system, Washburn said. At that rate, the freeway will become a parking lot within the next four or five years, he said.

Centennial highway funds paid for I-15 reconstruction in Salt Lake County and also for new interchanges in Orem and Pleasant Grove. The bonds that helped fund those projects will not be paid off until 2017, and the federal government has said it will not fund any new projects until the bonds are retired, Washburn said. That leaves local officials scrambling to find ways to pay for their transportation needs on their own.

"Everyone doesn't want to face the inevitable, and that is having to raise taxes," Washburn said.

Utah County is considering putting a quarter-cent sales tax increase on the ballot in 2004, and polls indicate residents are willing to spend the money to improve their transportation system. According to a Mountainland Association of Governments Survey, 70 percent of the residents polled favor the proposed increase, which would provide an additional $785 million for transit in Utah County.

Hugh Johnson, a regional manager with the Utah Transit Authority, said an estimated 17,000 workers commute to Salt Lake County daily. Taking just a portion of those commuters off the road and using mass transportation options would lessen traffic woes.

The quarter-cent tax increase would help fund a commuter rail line proposed to run from Payson to Brigham City. But even if Utah County raises the funds to build commuter rail, it must wait until Salt Lake County builds its line to the county border.

"We can raise taxes and we can build commuter rail to the Point of the Mountain, but there is no Promontory Point — there is nothing to hook up to us," Washburn said. Washburn said that would require Salt Lake leaders to prioritize and take some emphasis off their east/west connectors and put $200 million into a rail system, something they have been unwilling to consider in the past.