It's time for Lehi's leaders to face reality and accept a planned freeway through the city.

But Mayor Howard Johnson and other civic leaders say the road would cut Lehi in two, threaten groundwater supplies and lower property values. They came up with an alternative, an expensive connector in the vicinity of 4800 North. Johnson said it would disrupt Lehi less, save drivers time and gas, and link better with the thriving Point of the Mountain area.

But UDOT and the Federal Highway Administration have released an analysis of the 4800 plan that shatters the hopes of its advocates. Engineers concluded the connector requires a bridge as much as 2,300 feet long and 280 feet high. The link to I-15 would be 12 lanes that would have vehicles weaving through a spaghetti maze of ramps. The agencies estimated the 4800 North plan would cost $1.2 billion, compared to $540 million for the freeway. UDOT officials say they can no longer consider the 4800 North concept.

You don't have to be a rocket scientist, or even a highway engineer, to know that UDOT and FHWA have a strong case. All you have to do is look at a map. The 2100 North plan is the most direct route, would affect few people, avoids most wetlands and runs where a new highway is needed now, not where one might be needed later.

In public controversies, the voice of the people needs to be heard. In Lehi, it has. Our observation is that UDOT has taken pains to talk to people in the affected areas and to assess how highway plans will affect the community.

The people who must be heard include area residents who have pleaded for better roads. It's a need that can't be ignored any longer.

In such a dispute, the people, the government and the professionals eventually have to reach a decision and act on it. It need not be a perfect decision. Building a highway will necessarily inconvenience some people more than others. In this case, it looks as though the 2100 North Freeway offers the most benefits with the fewest difficulties.

Hearing the news Tuesday at a council meeting, Lehi council members were speechless. But the mayor, asked before the meeting about the 4800 North plan, told one of our reporters, "It's not dead. It is not dead." We take that as meaning that he believed the idea was only mostly dead, which is slightly alive. But the meeting pretty much ended the debate. The 4800 North plan moved from mostly dead to all dead.

In the past, Lehi has kept the notion of a lawsuit slightly alive as well. It's time to kill that notion as well. We urge the city's leaders to publicly announce their willingness to move ahead with the freeway now that the alternatives have been properly vetted.

Such a move would have a salutary effect on relations with neighboring communities, whose residents also have an interest in a new freeway.

We appreciate the difficulties involved in creating a major transportation corridor. Perhaps it's easy to say, but it seems that the freeway will be a benefit to Lehi in the long run. It could ease traffic congestion and draw homes and businesses to the relatively undeveloped part of that city. In any case, the Mountain View Corridor should benefit the region as a whole, including Lehi.

With that in mind, we urge all the cities to work on making this plan succeed. Each day that passes raises the project's cost and increases the difficulties involved. Signing on now is the best way to ease the pain and move forward.