Group proposes bridge over Utah Lake

(Deseret News) 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.

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