Marsac Avenue between the Deer Valley roundabout and the China Bridge parking garage will become one-way travel for two months this spring as crews replace about a 1,000 feet of water line.
Park City Public Utilities Director Clint McAffee says the work will begin from the Deer Valley event sign at the roundabout and travel south — or uphill — just past the entrance to the parking garage.
“We're connecting on either end of this project to water lines that were installed in the 2000s, where the water line we are replacing was constructed in the 1970s. And we have experienced multiple failures on that line. And it's a high impact situation when the water line breaks there because we have to mobilize the crew in an emergency situation, shut down lanes and fix it. So it's kind of a high consequence failure situation in terms of disruption to the public.”
He says they tried to time this construction during the slowest time of the year, right after the ski areas close, and hope to get in and out as quickly as possible.
Park City Utilities Engineer Griffin Lloyd says they’re hoping to be finished by June 15, but a lot of the traffic impacts should be wrapped up by Memorial Day weekend. He explained why it’s going to take so long, even with one lane of traffic closed.
“It's a small stretch, it's only 1,000 feet, but there's a lot of utilities in that corridor. And just with all of the traffic in there, we're gonna have to shut down the downhill direction during construction and detour it to Royal Street. So, it's just trying to get everything in such a tight space.”
For the most part, uphill traffic won’t be affected, but those traveling downhill from Empire Pass or Silver Lake will be required to take the long way around during the hours of construction, weekdays from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
“The uphill traffic won't be impacted. It'll just be shifted around the work and the downhill traffic. We will detour Wheaton Way and have the downhill traffic routed from Wheaton Way to Royal Street and then down Deer Valley Drive. And then at 7 p.m., both lanes will be open in both directions the way it is now.
McAffee says the city council didn’t want downhill traffic using Hillside Avenue as a detour. Those living on Marsac Avenue, however, will be able to access their homes and will be allowed to use Hillside Avenue.
The cost of the project was bid at $800,000. McAffee says infrastructure replacement projects are part of the city’s long term financial model and included in the expected cost of running the water system.
