Lehi Mayor Howard Johnson's proposed road plan is visionary.

The mayor, an engineer by trade, recently endorsed the idea of building a bridge to connect Provo and Orem to the west side of Utah lake. He also wants to see a tunnel that would move traffic past Camp Williams more efficiently and another bored straight through West Mountain into Cedar Valley from the Provo side. He'd like to see the Mountain View Corridor routed through Cedar Valley and connected to Interstate 15 near Nephi, creating a major alternative to the existing freeway and spawning west-side development.

Planners project that Utah County's population will double in the next 30 years, and the most logical place for that growth to happen is on the west side of Utah Lake. The east side is nearly built out, and further growth is blocked by the lake. In short, there is no place to go. The west, by contrast, has greater potential for development.

It is not inconceivable (in fact it should be expected) that cities will spring up on the west side.

Thinking long-term, therefore, planning a freeway through Cedar Valley makes a great deal of sense. In fact, a Cedar Valley freeway would function in relation to I-15 much the same way as California's Interstate 5 now functions as a high-capacity alternative to Highway 99, which brushes past all the little communities of California's Central Valley. Highway 99 -- the older route down California's spine from Canada to Mexico -- was subject to heavy congestion before the construction of Interstate 5, just as Utah's I-15 is now facing the same problem.

I-15 will always be necessary to serve Utah Valley communities between the lake and mountains, but it may not be the best place to funnel traffic and heavy trucking bound for points south. California has done many things right with regard to transportation, and Interstate 5 was one of them.

While some elements of Johnson's concept, such as the Utah Lake bridge, are borrowed from Mountainland Association of Governments, other elements are more original. The tunnels, for example, would dramatically shorten commutes into Cedar Valley.

It would be easy to dismiss such concepts as grandiose, but Johnson and others who dare to dream should be encouraged to think grand thoughts. They're a good thing. The trick is to get them translated into reality, and the time for reality -- for making concrete choices -- has come.

Firm plans will help new cities, as well as existing ones, to develop better in light of the growth. By knowing where the major highways will be, for example, cities can lay out residential and commercial zones and provide for more orderly development.

We hope more people like Mayor Johnson will let their creative juices flow. But the final decision-makers in the state Legislature and highway department should not sit around contemplating the universe of alternatives for long. Tough choices need to be made without undue delay.

There is no reason not to make those choices soon and to commit to a firm plan. We applaud the progress that has been made in road planning and mass transit to date, but the process must accelerate if we're going to have a real chance of saving Utah County's future.

This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page A5.

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