Year three of work on Bonanza Drive is scheduled to start later this month.
City Hall in 2010 and 2009 redid the busy road, installed the pedestrian-bicyclist tunnel underneath Bonanza Drive and put in a water line along the route. Officials do not expect the work this year will have the widespread traffic impacts that were irritants in the previous two years.
The Park City Council on Thursday night awarded a $984,085 contract to a firm called Lyndon Jones Construction for the final phase of the work along Bonanza Drive.
Matt Cassel, the Park City engineer and the City Hall staffer who is overseeing the project, said the firm was hired for “mostly beautification” work. Some of the improvements that will be made include:
Cassel said the crews are scheduled to start working by late August. The job will take approximately two months, he said.
Two lanes of traffic will be maintained at all time during the work. Cassel does not anticipate Bonanza Drive will be closed to traffic at any points. He does not expect traffic backups.
Large sections of the road were closed or heavily restricted at various points during the first two years of construction, creating traffic headaches for Parkites and commuters who use Bonanza Drive.
The overall cost of the work, including both the road improvements and the tunnel, is expected to total just under $8 million.
City Hall has scheduled an open house on Tuesday for people interested in the upcoming work. It runs from 5 p.m. until 6:30 p.m. in the City Council chambers at the Marsac Building. Cassel and representatives from the construction firm are scheduled to attend.
Bonanza Drive has long been one of Park City’s most congested roads, with traffic spilling onto the street from Old Town and the mountain resorts. People who live in Prospector, Park Meadows and points east also use Bonanza Drive frequently.