Would you pay $2 or $3 to drive across Utah Lake on a long toll bridge from Orem to Saratoga Springs, saving the time and gasoline cost of cruising around the lake?
A Utah County group, called Utah Crossing Inc., hopes you will. And they're willing to bet $600 million on it.
Leon Harward of Utah Crossing and Rep. Ken Sumsion, R-American Fork, briefed state House Republicans on Wednesday afternoon on a six-mile bridge that they say can be built privately, owned privately, financed privately and constructed in just three years.
"There is no major east-west corridor now across Utah County," Sumsion said. "And the only way to get one is go across the lake."
Between 2030 and 2050, Utah County's population should be as large as Salt Lake County's is today — more than 1 million people. Most of that growth will come on the west side of Utah Lake, flowing into Cedar Valley bordering south Tooele County.
The bridge would start out as one six-mile span, two lanes each way, 35 feet above the lake with a humped span that rises 50 feet to allow for tall sailboat masts to pass underneath. When the traffic demand justifies it, a second span would be built next to the first one, and there would be a divided highway with three lanes each way, Harward said.
The east side of the bridge would connect to 800 North in Orem. The west side would come into Saratoga Springs just north of Pelican Point and connect to Redwood Road. Ultimately the bridge would hook up to the proposed Mountain View Corridor, which would run north and south along the eastern foothills of the Oquirrh Mountains.
While the project would be private, the group does need state approval. Utah owns the lake bed, and Utah Crossing would lease the land required, paying the state some kind of annual amount and a percent of the profits, Sumsion said.
The bridge designer, Figg Engineering, has built bridges across America, including the new freeway replacement bridge in Minneapolis after the old one collapsed several years ago, Sumsion said.
The two phases of the Utah Lake bridge would cost around $600 million, Harward said.
Bluntly put, Utah state government doesn't now have the money to build the lake bridge.
House Majority Whip Brad Dee, R-Washington Terrace, praised the private effort, saying it was a perfect example of what private enterprise can do "when government gets out of the way."
Dee said there are always questions whether drivers will use a toll road/bridge. He said he was mayor of Washington Terrace when a toll bridge was built there. Not only did that work, but now a toll road has been added as well — both making money and serving residents, he said.
It is not now clear how much money the state could make on the toll bridge, Sumsion said. The money would go into the state lands trust fund, and he hopes it would come back to help manage the lake, like helping to get carp out of the body of water.
e-mail: bbjr@desnews.com