The bus rapid transit, or BRT, system will add additional buses and new bus-only lanes from Kimball Junction to Park City. High Valley Transit plans to start construction in August and finish by September 2028, or risk losing federal grant funding.
The agency plans to widen much of the road by several feet within city limits, but wary Park City councilmembers asked them to pump the brakes. Their main concern: losing some of the entry corridor’s character if the road becomes more of a highway.
HVT and Park City staff are meeting behind the scenes to talk about mitigating the effects of road widening. So staff on the Park City side asked the council at its meeting June 12 for feedback on those discussions.
“Being consistent with the decision or the guidance that we gave last week on the medians, I would have to say yes, I support the reduced widening that High Valley Transit has come back to us with after, you know, months of iteration and streamlining the project,” Councilmember Bill Ciraco said in response.
Ciraco was referencing the council’s decision to keep state Route 224’s medians.
High Valley initially considered widening more than 20 feet within city limits, then cut that to 10 feet and said it could be 4 feet if the council was okay with bulldozing the landscaped medians around Meadows Drive. The council would prefer the extra width instead.
Similar to Ciraco, other councilmembers expressed qualified support for some widening or support for continuing to talk through the issue. Councilmember Ed Parigian was the only one saying no widening at all.
On a tour of bus rapid transit in Ogden just before Park City’s council meeting, KPCW caught up with Utah Transit Authority’s Janelle Robertson, the project manager on Utah’s other BRT systems.
Asked about the challenges of developing BRT systems that traverse multiple jurisdictions, she said different cities always have different priorities.
And she sad the end goal is always making the street better, not worse. For example, in Utah County where she built BRT that runs through both Provo and Orem, the former was dead set on bike lanes.
“Honestly, I was surprised we spent a lot of money on landscaping, but I think it made all the difference,” Robertson said.
In Ogden, UTA gave out thousands of dollars in local business coupons to drive commerce during construction and make the project more palatable. UTA set up local advisory councils during construction projects so residents and business owners could give feedback about the contractors; High Valley plans to do the same.
After developing the state’s two existing bus rapid transit systems, UTA is working on a third that will serve Murray, Taylorsville and West Valley City.
Like UTA, High Valley Transit as an agency is wholly independent of the communities it works in, except that local officials sit on its board. That gives HVT the power and say-so to develop BRT as long as it has the Utah Department of Transportation’s blessing.
And HVT project manager Gabe Shields reiterated June 12 the agency is moving forward with its version of BRT one way or another, citing the schedule laid out in federal grants.
That reality made some city councilmembers chuckle and ask why their own staff members wanted to know what the council thought if it wouldn’t matter in the end.
City Manager Matt Dias told councilmembers their feedback does help in behind-the-scenes staff discussions.
“What I heard through the [council’s] direction is that — a very high bar for mitigations, to the extent possible. Some of my notes indicate: let's not make a small financial decision — or otherwise — be the reason that we don't do something that's over and above, potentially, level of service for mitigation,” Dias said. “So like: really row in these directions hard.”
Also at the meeting, HVT Executive Director Caroline Rodriguez noted the latest cost estimate for BRT is $119 million. Previously it was ballparked at $90 million.
About half the funding is coming from state and federal grants. The rest would be High Valley Transit, and potentially, local governments.
It’s unclear if or how much Park City will be asked to contribute to BRT, but city transportation staff have earmarked $6 million in next year’s budget to support it.
High Valley Transit and Park City Municipal are financial supporters of KPCW. For a full list, click here.
