Highland is looking to future

HIGHLAND — After the sun goes down on state Route 92 in Highland, the highway starts to look a lot more like a dark country road than a potential light-rail passageway.

But thinking 30 years in the future, Highland Mayor Jay Franson says a TRAX line or rapid-bus transit route along the road might become a necessity, and if so, he wants to start talking about it today.

"I can even look at myself in the mirror and go, 'Are you crazy? Light rail in north Utah County?"' Franson said as he talked to City Council members about the idea at a meeting last week. "But when I think about 25 years in the future, I go, 'No, this is something we need to do in terms of planning, particularly while the corridor's there."'

Franson suggested that the city discuss with Utah's Department of Transportation the possibility of preserving a right-of-way along S.R. 92 to facilitate a light rail or bus-rapid transit system in the future.

"I think we ought to get that in the planning process that's going to be going forward on S.R. 92," Franson said. "It's just something we need to address sooner rather than later."

UDOT already has plans to examine S.R. 92 in a road-widening environmental impact study that should be completed by early next year. In an effort to gather public feedback on how residents think UDOT should improve the road — which is also known as Micron Road— the organization will host a public meeting in February.

"If requests are made for transit or bike lanes, you have to throw all of that into the mix," said UDOT Region 3 spokesman Geoff Dupaix. "That's the purpose of the study, to look at those options and see if they're viable."

Dupaix said the environmental-impact study will determine how wide the road should be, but it will have a minimum of five lanes for the section that is most heavily traveled.

For the most part, S.R. 92 is a two-lane road. It runs through Lehi, Highland and Cedar Hills and is a primary route for residents travelling to I-15.

The road also winds into American Fork Canyon, where it turns into the Alpine Loop. It ends at S.R. 189 in Provo Canyon.

According to Dupaix, $20 million has been set aside for the project, which is enough to go ahead with the environmental-impact study and subsequent designs for improvement. The cost of the road repairs is yet to be determined, but Dupaix said the road will probably be under construction by 2009.