Park City is moving forward on plans for a park and ride lot at Quinn’s Junction.
But members of the Joint Transportation Advisory Board (or JTAB), at their last meeting, heard that the parking lot, at full capacity, will cause some traffic congestion at the Quinn’s Interchange.
Traffic planners are looking at two options to respond.
When voters approved new transit sales taxes in 2016, that gave the go-ahead for Summit County to plan a park and ride near the Ecker Hill Middle School, while Park City has been working on a similar lot near Quinn’s Junction. The city lot would be bounded on one side by the Highway 40 Frontage Road, and on the other side, by the on-ramp from Highway 248 up to Highway 40.
The attendees at the JTAB meeting heard from Park City Engineer John Robertson that UDOT had asked for a traffic impact study.
He said the study found that in time a clogging problem will appear at peak times when two streams of traffic come down the off-ramps of Highway 40—one coming from Wasatch County, the other from Silver Creek Junction.
Both streams of vehicles will head east on Highway 248, and will seek to make a left-hand turn onto the frontage road to enter the park and ride lot. But the queue from that intersection will back up and interfere with the signalized intersections at the Quinn’s Interchange.
However, Robertson reported that problem doesn’t turn up until the park and ride lot is at its full capacity of about 400 spaces.
Robertson said there are two options to resolve the problem. The first is to place a traffic light at the intersection of 248 and the frontage road, which will be coordinated with the current traffic signals at Quinn’s. The estimated cost for a signal is $250—270,000.
The second option is to take the intersection at the frontage road and move it east by about 150 feet. Robertson said that will cost $500-600,000.
He was also asked if UDOT might be interested in participating financially. Robertson said that’s possible, since the state has its own improvements planned for the Quinn’s Interchange.
Park City Council Member Steve Joyce said the county, city and the state all are motivated to get improvements done at the Junction.
“The saving grace is we’ve already talked in JTAB a number of times and outside of that, as well, on the 40 intersection having to be overhauled. And I think if you had the county, the city and UDOT all nodding their heads that this probably has to get done, then I think the 40 intersection’s gonna have to get done anyway and it’s in the plans. So I don’t think it’s quite the extension to go, will this get done, cause I think it’s basically just piggy-backing on something that everybody knows has to be done.”
County Council Member Kim Carson also wondered if the traffic study was taking account of another traffic stream coming down the frontage road—that’s from Silver Creek Village to the north.
