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The north end of Utah County has seen dramatic growth in the past decade, and finding solutions for traffic and paying for those solutions is becoming a hot issue in Lehi. The center of the traffic storm is along Lehi's Main Street.
It is the main path from I-15 to not only Lehi, but Saratoga Springs and Eagle Mountain as well, and gridlock is a reality during the day and especially during commute times. There is a roundabout where traffic comes together from all directions, and it gets really complicated at a railroad crossing.
Michelle, a Saratoga Springs resident, said, "I've actually been here when a train got stuck. And for an hour and a half you could not get past. People were trying to go back on the freeway to get to Thanksgiving Point, but it was a mess, it really was, it was a bad deal."
Freight trains can add delay, and plans to build commuter rail on this line could mean FrontRunner trains making short but frequent delays.
Lehi's mayor is pleading with the public to help pressure the state into building an underpass at the Main Street roundabout. He says once FrontRunner starts, the already slow intersection will get shut down up to 100 times a day, causing a "traffic meltdown."
The Utah Department of Transportation wants to build an underpass for cars to allow the trains to pass over without stopping traffic. UDOT believes Lehi City should pay the $23 million bill, but city leaders want to split the cost with UDOT, which says it has no funding for the project.
That's because UDOT has several transportation projects in Utah County right now, including the planned I-15 rebuild, commuter rail and the Mountain View Corridor.
Lehi officials hope a public outcry will change UDOT's mind.
E-mail: spenrod@ksl.com
E-mail: dbrinkerhoff@ksl.com
