Causeway could span Utah Lake

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    By Lane Stilson

    Developers of a community west of Utah Lake want a causeway built to connect Provo-Orem to their new development.

    Provo”s Mayor Lewis Billings said dozens of causeway proposals have been made over the years, but Harward and Associates, which planned the Mosida Orchards development on the west side, made the most recent proposal.

    Billings, a member of the Utah Lake Study Committee, said at this point he doesn”t know what role Provo City would play in the causeway project. He said if the city annexed the development, then Provo would participate in development oversight, maintenance and public safety aspects of the project.

    The causeway, a built-up road through the middle of the lake, would cut travel time for future residents.

    Billings noted, however, this is only a preliminary proposal.

    “We think there are a host of issues that need to be carefully and diligently studied before people start to make decisions,” he said. “It”s not something that we”ve studied seriously; it”s not something that we”re promoting or opposing.”

    The main issue is the cost. The Associated Press reported that previous proposals estimated causeway costs at approximately $200 million; however, LaVere Merritt, BYU professor of civil and environmental engineering, said the cost depends on the amount of risk planners are willing to take.

    “If you want this to … stay for 30 or 40 years with almost no maintenance, then you”ve got a very expensive solution,” he said. “If you want to chance it on just dumping rock, building an embankment, then putting a road on top of it…then you could do it for less money, but you have a more risky outcome.”

    Merritt said the least expensive causeway would be an embankment type where large loads of rock, gravel and dirt are used to build up a road in the middle of the lake. This method is also the riskiest because settling could sink the road or break up the asphalt. This type of causeway in Utah Lake might be especially problematic because the sediments underneath the lake are not compacted, Merritt said.

    He said the most expensive method involves driving heavy beams deep into the earth. Because the beams are anchored in compacted sediments, this method provides the most stable road for the future.

    Another concern for engineers is water circulation in the lake. Merritt pointed out that the old causeway in the Great Salt Lake changed salinity levels on both sides of the divider. Even after large culverts were installed in the causeway, salinity levels didn”t return to normal, which concerns some environmentalists.

    “This causeway is a nightmare from almost every perspective,” said Mark Clemens, Utah County chapter coordinator for the Sierra Club. “It would interfere with the natural life cycle of the lake. This is a terrible idea.”

    Despite the uncertainty and possible problems, from an engineering perspective, Merritt said problems could be overcome at a high price.

    Though causeway proposals have come and gone over the past few decades with few results, Billings said he sees a causeway happening someday.

    “I think that there are a number of pressures that, given time, will advance [the causeway] to a final project,” he said.

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