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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- Utah's first tollway could be a highway planned for the west side of Salt Lake County.
The Utah Legislature has left it up to the state transportation commission to decide when to impose tolls on future roads.
The bill slipped quietly through the Legislature in early March. Gov. Jon Huntsman signed it weeks later.
It didn't attract much attention because Senate Bill 25 did many other things -- such as encourage local governments to take over maintenance of state roadways.
Officials say the leading candidate for an electronic tollway is the 33-mile Mountain View corridor, which will skirt the county's fast-developing western half, picking up traffic from new housing developments.
Legislators kept the more politically volatile authority to impose tolls on existing state highways -- another possibility for Utah.
Utah's only toll road is a private affair -- the Adams Avenue Parkway, a 1-mile shortcut from Ogden's Washington Avenue to Interstate-84. It charges $1 each way for a car.
(Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
