U-92 interchange named 'hot spot'

OREM — Utah County residents have known for years that freeway congestion is not limited to roads north of Point of the Mountain.

Now, the national AAA has taken notice, choosing the interchange of I-15 and U-92 as one of the country's worst "commuter hot spots."

Nine other spots across the United States were chosen as illustrative of congestion problems commuters across the nation face every day. AAA chose the hot spots as part of a campaign to encourage better federal transportation funding.

Recommendations of problem areas near major freeways were sent to the national office from local offices, in this case AAA of Salt Lake. The Salt Lake office turned to the Utah Department of Transportation for advice on which interchange to select.

UDOT spokesman Tom Hudachko said AAA requested a hot spot along I-15 — and that was a big reason why the U-92 interchange was selected.

"They were originally interested in finding a hot spot along I-15 somewhere in Salt Lake County, and obviously, in the last few years, we've reconstructed essentially all of I-15 through Salt Lake county, so basically we just picked an interchange that was closest to Salt Lake County and went with that one," Hudachko said.

Hudachko said the brisk growth in the area also played a part in the selection.

"If you look at the area around that interchange even five years ago, there wasn't a lot there, and you look at what you've got out there now, and what's coming, it's pretty clear that there's going to be some significant growth in that area," he said.

There are far busier roads in other areas of Utah County, according to transportation planner Shawn Eliot of Mountainland Association of Governments, which conducts long-range transportation planning for the county.

As of 2003, there were just under 13,000 trips a day on U-92 in that area, Eliot said.

"That's heavy, but it's not that bad. Lehi Main Street through downtown has about 26,000 trips a day, so that's double" what U-92 is experiencing, he said.

But Eliot acknowledged that while other roads and interchanges may be busier now, the future growth near U-92 is expected to be explosive.

"In the future, that is going to be one of our worst (interchanges)," he said. "The data is showing that with this Traverse Mountain development, that the interchange will fail, no matter what you do. Another interchange is going to have to be built somewhere in the Point of the Mountain area to handle the traffic in the area."