Lehi community cites safety concerns, urges pedestrian bridge

LEHI — Residents and local leaders are calling on state officials to help fund a pedestrian bridge they say is urgently needed after a 15-year-old boy was struck while crossing Timpanogos Highway.

Tiffany Barker was on her way home last month when she saw the boy get hit. The teen had been following all of the traffic laws and crossing state Route 92 on his electric bike in a crosswalk when a truck turning right ran into him.

"That highway is a very fast-moving highway, and it's an east-to-west direction, so you have limited visibility with sunrises and sunsets already, and the cars are going so fast. It's a major corridor. So cars aren't looking for people; they are looking out for other cars," Barker said.

Barker immediately got out of her car to comfort the boy, who was lying in the crosswalk, and realized she knew him from her neighborhood. She said the driver appeared to be remorseful.

Miraculously, she said, the boy survived the accident with just some broken bones. But she said the incident is a warning about how dangerous the road already is and how important it is to install a pedestrian bridge.

"This is the time to get this done now, before we have something where a child or a person loses their life," Barker said. "The bridge should've been put in when the schools were put in. It's already overdue and we can't risk having a life lost at that intersection."

Barker reached out to Lehi City Councilwoman Michelle Stallings with her concerns and learned the city has been working to move the bridge up on the Utah Department of Transportation's priority list.

"Grateful it wasn't worse than it was, but it still is not something we want to happen. That was our worst fear," Stallings said.

Stallings told KSL that a potential pedestrian bridge along Center Street has been on her radar since she first ran for a seat on the council in 2023.

Foot traffic already crosses the intersection from the middle school on the north side of Timpanogos Highway because students like to visit a gas station convenience store and restaurants on the south side.

Ninth-grade students at the school sometimes cross the road to visit the high school on the south side for classes and sports activities, Stalings said. Now, additional development is happening on the north side, with stores such as Target moving in that may attract even more high schoolers to cross the busy road.

The Center Street crossing is already a good place for a pedestrian bridge if the city wants walkability and safe routes for the students, but with the new developments, the need is becoming more apparent, Stallings said.

"The schools are a big concern because we have big crowds of students crossing there, but people cross that all the time," she said.

Barker agrees, and said many students live too close to the schools to qualify for a bus route and have to walk or drive.

"A lot of kids leave school for lunch and walk across the street, and all of the added growth up here ... it's just going to create more people crossing that street. I feel like that bridge is imperative that it happens right away. It can't be third in priority; it has to be No. 1," Barker said.

UDOT told the council a pedestrian bridge would be expensive, so it wouldn't be installed until the commuter lane was expanded, which was still years away, Stallings said.

Councilwoman Rachel Freeman, however, was passionate about getting the bridge installed and so she got the ball rolling on acquiring funding. City staff started looking into federal grants, working with the state legislature and exploring other avenues.

In August, Lehi was approved for $4.5 million in funding from Mountainland Association of Governments, which would cover about half the cost of the bridge, Stallings said. Now, council members are looking to the state for the rest of the funding.

Stallings explained that the bridge scored quite high on UDOT's criteria for active transportation projects, making it No. 2 on the list of unfunded projects. But since the Utah Transportation Commission doesn't have a set time it approves funding, it could happen at any time, she said.

"What we're asking them to do, especially because of the accident, that's where I'm like, we can't just sit around and wait. We have got to do something," Stallings said.

Stallings is encouraging community members to reach out to the transportation commission to make them aware of the urgent safety need.

"I'm just asking residents to write in, kindly express appreciation for the tough job they have; they have to decide among many worthwhile projects which ones to fund, but point out it's a safety issue," Stallings said. "It needs to be pushed up because of those safety concerns."

In the meantime, Stallings said the city is discussing ways to make the crossing safer, such as adding a crossing guard, until the bridge can be built.

Barker also started an online petition to help spread the word. She hopes people will contact state legislators to consider using appropriation funds to build the bridge.

"We are urging UDOT to make this project their number one priority before another child gets injured or worse," the petition states. "We cannot afford to wait for further accidents before taking action. The safety of our children and community is paramount."

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