You can't always get what you want. Unless you charge a toll.
Weber County and Washington Terrace officials have been asking the Utah Transportation Commission to pay for a road through this south county community for years. The answer has always been `no,' or `not yet,' due to a lack of funds, the road's relative priority and liability concerns over the proposed route's proximity to active railroad tracks.But now - thanks to a private developer, a legislative coup and a funding concept popular on both coasts - the city is about to get a 1 1/2-mile road connecting U.S. 89 and the South Weber interchange of I-84. The $9 million Adams Avenue Turnpike will become Utah's only true toll road, although the planned Legacy Highway and other pay-per-use roads could follow.
"It's needed to get people (between) the south end of the county and the north end of Davis County. We had a hard time understanding the (transportation commission's) hesitation to do it," said Weber County Commission chairman Joe Ritchie. "Then we said, `Wow, we can do it as a private toll road. Why not? Let's do it.'
"If it doesn't work, I guess that's one of the pitfalls of the free enterprise system. But we're real high on this. We are convinced that this is going to be very popular. I think people will pay a pittance for convenience and safety."
A one-way trip is expected to cost between a quarter and 50 cents. The journey across the Weber River on a 400-foot bridge, up a steep hill and past the Ogden Regional Medical Center will dramatically shorten what is now a six-mile trek on I-84 and U.S. 89.
More than 17,000 cars a day now travel through the city toward various destinations, including nearby Weber State University. Students and professors are expected to be among those who will use the new toll road.
Developer Doug Stephens and city officials hope motorists will do more than just pass through. They expect the turnpike to generate both commercial and residential development along the corridor, all of which is now inside Washington Terrace after a recent 135-acre annexation.
"It gives us the potential to have a commercial area right around Ogden Regional," said Paul Tippetts, the city's building official. "We're mostly residential and that's the last vacant area" with potential for commercial development and the tax base it would generate.
Stephens, a prominent developer and Weber County resident, is financing most of the money for the road. He is developing a golf course (Pleasant Valley) that will be served by the turnpike and has plans for a residential community on adjacent property he owns.
Stephens will borrow $2 million from the state under a measure passed during the 1997 legislative session, an action some lawmakers vehemently opposed because it was tacked onto a larger appropriations bill and was not reviewed by a committee.
The Utah Department of Transportation has prepared a contract that requires Stephens to match dollar-for-dollar the amount of state funds he uses, and requires him to start paying back the state in 2007. Washington Terrace and neighboring South Ogden also will chip in.
Clint Topham, UDOT's deputy director, said the turnpike will tell state officials a lot about Utahns' willingness to use toll roads. Tolls are being considered as a way to finance about 30 percent of the proposed Legacy Highway in Davis County.
Automated toll technology now used on the 91 Express Lanes and the San Joaquin Hills Transportation Corridor in Orange County, Calif., may be used on the turnpike. The electronic collections system would allow motorists to enter and exit the roadway without slowing to toss a coin or stopping at a toll booth.
Topham said his department will be interested to see how that technology works, if it is employed, and will examine the success of the public-private partnership between the state, the developer, Weber County and the two cities.
"I'm a firm believer in user fees and that people who use a facility ought to pay for it," Ritchie said. "I think we ought to take a look at doing more of these types of things. The state ought to get more involved, particularly when (toll roads could be) used to move mass amounts of traffic."
County officials believe the turnpike will help downtown Ogden by making it more accessible from the south and west. It could also encourage commercial development on the south side of the I-84 interchange in Davis County, although some South Weber residents aren't too thrilled about that prospect.
User fees are not entirely new to Utah motorists.
Salt Lake County and the U.S. Forest Service have charged a fee to drive up Millcreek Canyon since 1991. And under a federal pilot program, the Forest Service this year began charging fees for the road through Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area and the Mirror Lake Highway. In August, it will begin charging $3 per car for the Alpine Loop road through American Fork Canyon.
But those fees are collected to support a myriad of recreation services, not just road construction and maintenance. Motorists wishing to access private property or drive through a Forest Service road without stopping to use recreational facilities don't have to pay the fee.