Fed up with traffic, the mayor of Lehi -- the city which is the nexus of Utah County congestion -- would like to use nuclear waste storage to pay for new roads.

While noting they are hobbled by federal red tape, Mayor Howard Johnson lashed out at state and regional transportation planners recently, saying they have failed his city and the rest of the Wasatch Front -- and must change direction now.

Johnson asked the Daily Herald for a meeting to discuss traffic and spent two hours listing a litany of complaints against planners -- and ideas to correct the state's transportation woes. He also gave the Daily Herald copies of letters he had written to the Utah Department of Transportation, local mayors, and legislators demanding action.

The mayor said he "did not want to come off as a big aggravation, that I'm fighting everyone," but then said "there is truth in this situation and sometimes it hurts for the truth to be said when you personally don't want to hear it -- and some things Mountainland and UDOT don't want to hear." Mountainland Association of Governments is Utah County's regional planning organization.

His frustration is simple, he said. Interstate 15, already failing, can never be expanded enough to hold future traffic, and even if Utah County voters one day approve a tax increase for commuter rail, the rail service could only hold 10 percent of commuters.

A new freeway west of Utah Lake is the only solution -- and planning and right-of-way acquisition must begin immediately, he said.

How much would the proposed freeway cost?

"How much will it cost not to do it?" he asked.

When pressed to say how he proposes the state pay for such a road, there was a long pause.

"It is nuclear deposits," he said.

Storing nuclear materials is "absolutely, totally safe, and because of the paranoia of the good folks of the East, they will pay almost any money to get it out of their back yard," he said. If Utah would "swallow a little bit of pride and provide a little bit of nuclear storage" the state could earn up to three-quarters of a billion dollars a year.

If nuclear storage is a no-go, the state could also earn $200 million a year in new tax money by requiring Internet vendors to collect tax payments on all Internet sales to residents, he said.

Or Utahns might simply have to accept a tax increase "and get what we are demanding because of the way we live," or perhaps, he said -- though he noted it would not be fair to those using I-15 -- the new freeway could be a toll road.

When speaking with the Daily Herald, Johnson initially said the 140-mile freeway he proposes should begin where Interstate 84 dead-ends into I-15 at Tremonton, cross the Great Salt Lake on a new causeway "creating a freshwater lake," go north of the Salt Lake International Airport, head south and cross I-80, go underneath Camp Williams in a tunnel, travel west of Utah Lake and eventually rejoin I-15 south of Nephi.

He later said he recognizes environmental concerns would likely never permit a causeway across the Great Salt Lake and that only the portion of the freeway from I-80 southward might be feasible.

I-15 is already a "parking lot" and work is now beginning on a $111 million state project which would help traffic get through Lehi to I-15 faster, as well as widen Redwood Road. The problem is that state projections show 130,000 people will live in Eagle Mountain and Saratoga Springs in 30 years, he said.

"Can you imagine 130,000 people coming down Lehi Main Street or Redwood Road?" he said. "Both are overloaded now."

Even if flow through Lehi improved, "this is all being dumped on I-15 on the north end of Utah County where I-15 is already a parking lot," he said.

The state also has a billion-dollar plan to widen I-15 through Utah County and "when it gets done we will find it didn't really solve the problem," he said.

State and regional planners are "already 30 years behind schedule," he said. "I've watched Eagle Mountain, and I knew that given water they would grow the way they have done, and they have grown without even a good cow trail for transportation, and I use that word specifically."

Dan Nelson, director of regional transportation for Mountainland, said Mountainland officials have met with Johnson at least twice "and we have a dialogue with him," but declined to comment on Johnson's comments to the Daily Herald.

"We recognize that I-15 is not the only solution," said Geoff Dupaix of UDOT. "It is an important piece to the entire transportation puzzle, but we agree that more needs to be done."

Many solutions are being studied, he said.

"We agree with Mayor Johnson that we face a tremendous challenge and it is going to take a collective effort from UDOT, MAG, and each city in the county as well as the public in order to meet those transportation needs today and in the future."

There are no plans to build a freeway west of Utah Lake "but that does not mean that it could not happen in the future," he said.

UDOT has met with Johnson and is also always happy to hear any suggestions from the public, Dupaix said.

Johnson said that state studies show that about three-fourths of the traffic from the Eagle Mountain and Saratoga Springs commutes north to Salt Lake County for work. The proposed freeway is the only way to get that traffic -- now and in the future -- to Salt Lake without perpetually jamming I-15.

In addition, the sweeping $300 million shopping center to be built in Lehi, called the Terrace at Traverse Mountain, is projected to attract 2 to 3 million visitors a year, supplementing the 4 to 5 million visitors that Cabela's is projected to bring in -- not to mention the 8,000 homes planned for the area and the expansion of Micron.

Even an expanded I-15 will likely buckle under the traffic, he said.

The proposed new freeway need not be built all at once, but planning must begin immediately and the state must buy the land for the road before there is more development in the area, he said.

Johnson said he hopes residents will speak out in support of his idea -- or any idea to solve Utah County's traffic problems.

"More people should be speaking out," he said. "Sometimes our vision is like the blinders on a horse...People can look at me and tell me I'm all wet, and I may be, but show me a solution. That solution is not I-15."