The Guardsman’s Pass road also called 224 will close to all vehicle traffic beginning September 27 at 8 am. Wasatch County has hired a road contractor to lay asphalt from the top of the pass to the “Y” intersection with Pine Canyon Road. The paving project is a first for this steep mountain pass. Carolyn Murray has this:
The Guardsman’s Pass road closes to vehicle traffic on Thursday, September 27 until October 1. They’re not allowing any traffic during the work day which will begin at 8 am and finish at 7 pm. The contractor says they’re trying to beat the cold weather and they plan to work through the weekend. There is a chance they’ll finish by Sunday the 30th and allow the road to open. Clay Packard with Staker Parsons, said they will notify KPCW and provide variable messaging on all the road signs in Big Cottonwood, Pine Canyon and the Park City side of 224. UDOT will also broadcast the closure on their overhead signs.
“On the excavating, we ran it under traffic control. We’re going to be doing the paving and after we’re finished paving, there’s 4000 feet of guard rail that’s going to go in so it will be under a flagging operation where we’ll let cars go by one direction at a time where if we tried to pave with that traffic, nobody would go anywhere. So, take these five days to hurry and get it paved, to get out of everybody’s way so they still enjoy the fall beauty, I guess.”
Packard said they’re trying to get the project done before the end of the year and before the snow comes.
"Yeah, they didn’t bid the project until, I don’t know when it was…in September… was the project bid.”
They’ve excavated the road from the top parking lot to the intersection and allowed traffic during that phase but Packard said it was extremely dangerous and that’s why they decided to shut it down completely while they’re paving.
“While the paving operation was taking place, it was determined that it was an unsafe work zone with traffic trying to move by us, with such a vertical edge, that we would force traffic out onto it as they were trying to come by the paving equipment. I mean it’s a safety issue of not only our people but of the traveling public.”
Packard said it will take about two to three weeks to install the 4000 feet of guardrail along the upper reaches of the Guard road. The total cost of the project he said is about $850,000 dollars. This is a Wasatch County project, so questions can be directed to 435-657-3180.
