Construction started this week on SR 248 between the highway 40 interchange and the intersection with Park Avenue. Along with a fresh driving surface, a new lane configuration will be painted on the road.
Reimagining SR 248 and how commuters enter and exit Park City from the east is not a new topic. The city funded an environmental assessment in 2017 to explore options for the corridor in an effort to help alleviate some of the congestion seen in and out of town.
A preferred alternative with a price tag of $62.8 million would have added an extra lane and was initially put forward by the Utah Department of Transportation. But that was swiftly rejected by Park City and Summit County in 2019 in favor of repaving and repainting the road, which would cost under $1 million in UDOT funds.
Two years later, that project began this week and is expected to be complete in August.
UDOT project manager Brian Allen told KPCW the work is, by road construction standards, fairly routine. The roughly three-and-a-quarter miles of pavement between Highway 40 and Park Avenue will be resurfaced and repainted, adding a dedicated westbound bus lane between the highway and Comstock Drive.
Allen said the new lane is designed to complement the city’s future park and ride at Quinn’s Junction.
“Park City actually approached UDOT and said, ‘hey, let’s do some shoulder running, let’s try this to do shoulder-running buses into Park City and see if it makes a difference,’” he said.
Although the bus lane will be there at the end of the summer, it won’t be able to take advantage of the park and ride -- at least not yet.
Park City engineer John Robertson told city council last month a “perfect storm” of factors brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic like economic uncertainty, worker shortages, and increased materials costs has caused several of the city’s transportation projects to run behind schedule. The park and ride was scheduled to break ground this summer, but is now looking at a 2022 start date.
He told KPCW things are on schedule to break ground in the spring of next year.
“We’re expecting to go out to bid in the wintertime, starting construction in the spring of 2022,” Robertson said. “We are working with three fiber optics companies right now on that location. We’ve gotten agreements with them, and paid them what we needed to pay them because they need to relocate their facilities from the park and ride area. That’s going to be happening this summer so that there’s nothing stopping us from beginning the project come springtime.”
Although the park and ride is at least a year away, existing bus lines like High Valley Transit’s Kamas Valley Commuter can use the westbound lane.
The dedicated bike lane on the eastbound side of the road will remain intact, but the westbound bike lane will be removed to make room for the bus. Cyclists can still ride in the dedicated bus lane or use the nearby Rail Trail.
Current UDOT estimates put the construction end date sometime in August, and Allen said he sees nothing at the moment that could push that back any further.
More information on the project can be found here.
