Bus rapid transit is coming to Park City in 2028. But what can Parkites expect the project to look like based on a similar bus system in the state? 

On a tour with the Utah Transit Authority, press and High Valley Transit staff rode Ogden’s own bus rapid transit system, dubbed OGX. It’s a similar concept to what High Valley is working to build along S.R. 224 in partnership with Park City and Summit County, and it came with its own set of challenges, too. 

Ogden’s rapid bus service opened in August 2023 after two years of accelerated construction. It runs a total of 5.1 miles from Ogden Central up through Harrison Boulevard, a main thoroughfare, to McKay Dee Hospital and back. A mile and a half stretch on Harrison includes dedicated bus lanes, too. 

It’s fast. Signal priority technology throws up all reds at an intersection and lets the bus cruise through. OGX can get you across its whole 5-mile route in about 30 minutes, with buses leaving every 10 minutes on weekdays and less frequent service on weekends. The service is free for its first three years, which ends in 2026. 

It’s not unlike the plan for S.R. 224, Park City’s Harrison Boulevard equivalent.

High Valley would run nearly the same total distance but with a longer portion of dedicated lanes from Olympic Parkway to Kearns Boulevard. Then, mixed-flow transit from there to Old Town, with two travel lanes each direction and a turn lane between them. Buses will show every 10 to 15 minutes, from 6 a.m. to midnight every day, for free. 

There are also differences.

OGX uses bus-only center lanes and stations on Harrison. It leads to some jarring moments in which a bus has to cross over to the left side of the road to position its doors to the right so that riders can get on and off at the center station. High Valley’s design opts for shoulder lanes and stops, skirting the issue, but it was something the local transit district looked into doing.

The OGX tour was intended in part to give press a sense of what bus rapid transit feels like, particularly because it’s not always apparent how it’s all that different from a regular bus service. High Valley Transit Executive Director Caroline Rodriguez has said as much.

“It’s such a different service,” Rodriguez said at an April open house for the project. “One of the characteristics of bus rapid transit is different branding, different stations, so that people see it as a distinct and different service that is express, frequent, and it’s not like your local bus service.”

A ride on OGX makes the benefits of the pitch clear: It’s indeed fast, frequent and flexible.

Buses leave often and aren’t confined to a rail like a train would be, so drivers can make detours if needed. The OGX network reaches popular hubs for workers and students, and with dedicated lanes, stops and signal priority, the buses make better time than a car would and eliminate the need to find parking or pay for it. It’s the benefits of light rail with a fraction of the infrastructure. 

So what’s the catch? The tour was a taste of what could be — and also a moment to discuss the challenges of how to get there. 

Money’s a big one. OGX cost $120 million, 35% of which came from partners and 65% of which came from Federal Transit Administration grants. At a June 12 Park City Council meeting, Rodriguez said the latest estimate for the project is $119 million; $25 million is from federal grants, and about $30 million is state money. Park City has earmarked $6 million to contribute. There’s still about a $55 million funding gap as of late June.

Previously, the estimate had been lower, closer to $100 million, but Gabriele Shields, High Valley’s project manager for the bus rapid transit project, said that’s what happens as estimated costs become actualized.

“Now that we’re in the final design phase and we have a construction contractor, that’s a number where they’re saying, ‘Hey, my guys pour this much asphalt per day. I’m buying asphalt from this plant that’s 35 minutes away. That takes my truck drivers this long to drive there and back,’” Shields explained. “It’s a bottom-up, production-based estimate that’s very, very real.”

Another reason for the increase is contingencies, money the Federal Transit Administration requires High Valley to have on hand at various points in the construction process for unforeseen costs, just in case. It’s calculated as a percentage of the overall budget, and there are different categories of contingencies they’re required to maintain.  

“Right now, of that $119 million, $14 million is just construction contingency,” he said. 

Construction challenges are just hard to predict. Janelle Robertson, a project manager with UTA who helped plan and fund the OGX project, said that running construction on Harrison, a large thoroughfare, was indeed challenging.

“It’s a road that carries a significant amount of traffic,” Robertson said. “We were building exclusive lanes down the center of it.” 

Like High Valley will need to do on S.R. 224, UTA widened Harrison to accommodate the new dedicated bus lanes. That impacted the businesses lining the busy street.

For some, that meant right of way acquisitions, meaning UTA purchased property from businesses where needed in order to widen the road. Sometimes that was just a few feet. Other times, that meant buying a whole property because the acquisition impacted them too greatly, Robertson said. 

There aren’t really businesses lining 224, but there are going to be necessary right of way acquisitions, so people with property on the road will still be impacted. High Valley said it plans to rely on construction easements and perpetual easements. It’s possible the transit district would make some fee acquisitions — pay fair market value for a property — but there aren’t any plans to purchase whole properties, only partial properties or strips. 

In Ogden, because businesses on Harrison were so affected by the widening, UTA worked with its partners to give coupons out around the community for cash discounts at participating restaurants and businesses that had been affected. About $20,000 to $25,000 total was paid out to those businesses to help smooth things over, according to Andy Neff of The Langdon Group, who did public relations work for the project.

Shields said the way UTA collaborated with Ogden over those impacts is something High Valley is looking to replicate. They want to find solutions that make sense for the area.

“I can’t commit to exactly what that looks like right now, but we’re starting to have those conversations about, how do we build the right mix of the community?” Shields said. “To make sure our contractor is being receptive and professional, presentable. Doing right by the community. Honoring the spirit of what we’re trying to do here.”

There could be a community committee that forms, he said. High Valley would meet every month with people from the areas affected by construction, give them an update, walk them through what to expect for the upcoming month and talk through concerns. Those people can then serve as ambassadors for the project and help with communicating what’s going on others in the area.

Shields also added that he personally loves how the Ogden community was involved in the design for the bus shelters. 

“They had the translucent glass artwork at all of their stations, and every single one was a little bit different and unique,” he said. “I thought that was a really neat thing that they were able to bring the community into.”

The current bus rapid transit project plans are at 30% design. High Valley had originally hoped to hit 60% design by June 25, but, Shields said, they’ve delayed that deadline to July in order to make sure they’re ready to get started on initial construction in August and make headway on the overall timeline. They can get going even without a fully mapped-out design, he said. 

“If you were gonna go build a shed, you might not have drawings, or you might not have your materials, but you know you’re going to need a flat spot to build it,” Shields said. “So we do those activities that are low risk, that we’re nearly guaranteed to need.” 

That means, in August, get ready for the raised medians to take their leave. High Valley will use that space next spring to shift traffic around while they work on the shoulder. It’ll be a large-scale construction project, the kind the community hasn’t seen in a while, Rodriguez said.

But at the end of it all, the service intends to offer robust, capable transportation to 5,000 people a day, currently set to be only the second rural bus rapid transit service of its kind in the nation.

More information on High Valley Transit and the bus rapid transit project are available at hvtutah.gov.

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At an open house Tuesday at the Richins Building, High Valley Transit welcomed the public’s questions about the agency’s bus rapid transit project that will widen S.R. 224 with dedicated bus lanes. Construction is slated to start in August. 

After receiving a reaffirmed commitment from the city and with Stacy Witbeck as the selected contractor, the project is finally happening, and High Valley had answers for the public’s questions about the three years of construction ahead of them.

Community members circled the room, perusing poster boards explaining various aspects of the project, from a basic explanation and timeline to grittier details like plans for noise mitigation and right-of-way acquisitions. Specialists from the county transit agency were also on hand to break things down.

High Valley Transit Executive Director Caroline Rodiguez said she was happy to see the turnout. Her focus right now is on communicating the project’s role in helping the community maintain its mountain lifestyle.

“It’s such a different service,” Rodriguez said. “One of the characteristics of bus rapid transit is different branding, different stations, so that people see it as a distinct and different service that is express, frequent, and it’s not like your local bus service.” 

With the ability to transport over 5,000 people a day through the corridor, bus rapid transit is touted as mitigating the area’s growing traffic concerns, such as congestion and the need for more parking structures in Old Town.

Why haven’t more communities done something like this? Well, it takes chops. There aren’t a lot of rural transit agencies that have the funding or technical expertise to undertake a project like this, Rodriguez said. It’s been a decade of collaboration between Summit County, Park City and the Utah Department of Transportation.

“We’re lucky because we have UDOT to guide us, and of course, they have years of construction expertise, and they’re a great partner for us because they fully believe in the importance of this project as well,” she said.

The project will widen S.R. 224 and add dedicated bus lanes on the edges of the state road, which any bus or emergency vehicle can then use. Bus rapid transit-specific buses will have their own stops, and ultimately the road will be 92 feet across, pavement edge to pavement edge, and a two-foot buffer will separate the bus lanes from general traffic. 

Bus rapid transit will run between Olympic Parkway and Kearns Boulevard, a distance of about five miles. Then, from Kearns to Old Town, there will be mixed-flow transit, with two travel lanes per direction and a turn lane separating them. Service will be provided seven days a week, 6 a.m.-midnight, with a 10-15 minute frequency.

Project Manager Gabriel Shields said that during the first phase of construction, which is aiming to start in August, they’ll focus on removing the raised medians that already exist through the corridor, such as around Canyons Resort Drive and near McPolin Barn, because otherwise they would get in the way of the work.

“That allows next summer, when the work on the road is happening and traffic needs to be shifted east to west, those medians are not impeding that, so that’s really the first thing that we focus on,” Shields said, adding that the raised medians will eventually return. “They will be installed at the end of construction.”

That’s the game plan for fall, medians and utilities.

“Summer 2026, what you’re going to see a lot of is drainage work,” Shields said. “So anywhere where we’re touching the roadway, there’s drainage inlets, there are pipes underneath, there are utilities that get relocated.”

Shields said that phase is kind of inscrutable to passersby. It may seem like nothing’s happening, but they’ll be working in the dirt. You just might not see self-evident progress.

Then, starting in 2027, asphalt will go back down, and the majority should be down by the end of the year. In 2028, they’ll work on finishing asphalt, as well as striping, landscaping — any finishing touches.

Rodriguez said communicating to the public what to expect from construction is part of their goal with the open houses.

“It’s going to be really important — especially because it’s a large construction project, something that this community has not seen in recent years — that we also are very clear in timelines, when they can expect impacts, what those impacts look like and what they can expect to see literally on the ground during the construction process.”

So, the agency will do a lot of public outreach during the next three years. That will look like visits to property owners, creating a project hotline and email, regular updates via email and social media, and a stakeholder advisory committee. They’ll provide advanced notice for planned utility service interruptions, access closures and changes and any traffic control adjustments they’ll have to make. 

The widening also means that UDOT and High Valley will need to secure right of way in some places in order to construct or operate. Depending on the need, securing rights of way will take on a couple of different forms.

There may be temporary construction easements — in which High Valley will pay property owners rent for the right to use a described portion of property for construction purposes under a pre-determined time limit or when construction is finished.

Or there could be a perpetual easement, in which High Valley will pay property owners for a right to use a portion of a property for purposes they would outline beforehand and in which property owners would retain ownership, though there would be no time limit, granting UDOT permanent right of access.

Another option could be fee acquisitions, in which UDOT would purchase and own an actual described portion of property and pay fair market value.

High Valley was keen to emphasize that, for the fee acquisitions, there aren’t any plans to purchase whole properties, only partial properties or strips. Right now property considerations are at 30% design — meaning that the agency has the general shape of what it needs to know — so more specifics will come into focus as they approach 60% design, which should be by June 25. By that point, a two-week review period kicks off, when Summit County, Park City, UDOT and any stakeholders will get to take a look at the design.

The affected properties also might have idiosyncrasies they’re not yet aware of, so they’ll work with owners. Open-house attendees can sign up to speak with a road designer and review potential impact areas if their property is in the impact boundary. 

High Valley also studied noise impacts. They discovered two small areas with a potential need for abatement measures, such as a noise wall. High Valley can implement a wall if it’s deemed both feasible and reasonable, at which point property owners who would be affected will vote on whether to erect. If 56% of those people say yes and at least 75% submit a vote, they can implement. 

Once all of this is done, service will start — hopefully by 2028. 

Oh, and what about S.R. 248, the other road into town? Rodriguez said she sees a future where the two link up.

“I absolutely see (S.R.) 248 as a second piece to complete connectivity in the Wasatch Back,” she said. “I mean, essentially, there’s two ways in and out of town, and both should operate as successfully as possible to make this a completely workable town to be in. So will it physically connect? I think, eventually, it probably will … I hope it will, but I don’t think you can fix one and not fix the other.”

High Valley Transit will hold another in-person open house on May 6 at McPolin Elementary, 2270 Kearns Blvd., from 5:30-7 p.m., as well as a virtual open house online via Zoom on May 8, noon-1:30 p.m. More information on that session and the bus rapid transit project is available at hvtutah.gov.

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Plans to transform S.R. 224 into a 96-foot-wide corridor from gutter to gutter, with two 12-foot bus lanes, a 4-foot shoulder on each side, a two-foot buffer, and four 11-foot car lanes separated by a 12-foot center median, are well underway and could be completed as soon as late 2028.

The bus rapid transit project is touted as a solution for moving people through the community by reducing travel times, increasing frequency and improving the reliability of public transportation services in Summit County and Park City by creating dedicated transit lanes from Kimball Junction to Kearns Boulevard. 

Additional bus stops, new amenities at existing stations and traffic signal improvements are also included in High Valley Transit District’s project plans. 

“At HVT, we’re about providing access to our community without the use of cars and demonstrating that modern bus technology is a cost-effective, quality strategy for doing that,” Executive Director Caroline Rodriguez said. “S.R. 224 is the backbone of our regional system, enabling far more daily trips than any other corridor, and providing critical connectivity to both the Wasatch Front and the Wasatch Back.”

Rodriguez and Gabriel Shields, the transit district’s bus rapid transit project manager, met with the Summit County Council and Park City Council on Monday for a joint meeting to provide an update on the endeavor.

The bus rapid transit project is in the final design phase, and High Valley Transit plans to select a contractor by early December. Rodriguez needed confirmation from both the city and county that officials still wanted to pursue the project after almost a decade of work.

However, there won’t be an accurate estimate on the final price tag until next spring.

The worst-case scenario was estimated to cost a total of $70.9 million in 2022, but it’s now jumped to between $97 million and $103 million with inflation. High Valley Transit has already secured $64 million through state and federal funding as well as the transit sales tax.

Park City Municipal expected to contribute around $6 million to the original project, and some city councilors were surprised to learn that it could more than triple if High Valley Transit is unable to bridge the funding gap. They questioned the reason for the increase and whether it was worth the cost to add or improve bus stops at certain locations such as Thaynes Canyon.

Rodriguez said the $20 million request was a placeholder because the transit district was told “this conversation could not be had without a specific number.” She maintained everything was included in the project to improve the quality of life for residents and commuters while promoting connectivity to the Park City Transit system.

“We have always said we are working to lower this cost. It is not going to be an unfair burden on Park City,” Rodriguez said. 

There would be dedicated bus lanes with mixed flow traffic starting at the Kimball Junction Transit Center down to Kearns Boulevard with new bus stops along the way. Then there would be improvements such as turn lanes and more green lights for buses heading from the Fresh Market area into Old Town Park City. 

Shields estimated the time savings is more than 25 minutes.

“On day one, we are ready to provide 5,000 rides every day,” he said. “That is seven days a week from 6 a.m. to midnight, including peak 10-minute service at those really high-demand periods. We recognize that the transportation solution for the community requires a holistic approach. That’s going to require dedicated transit such as BRT as well as regional park-and-ride and parking demand strategies. That is really the first step towards that vision,” Shields said.

The bus rapid transit project was originally designed to be 115 feet wide, but it was reduced to help save money. Shields explained other changes have been made to optimize the design such as changing the entire corridor to a 45 mph zone, decreasing the lane, median and shoulder widths as well as including city and county trail projects — all of which mean cost savings.

Bill Ciraco, Ed Parigian and Jeremy Rubell, the newest members on the City Council, debated the benefits of the bus rapid transit project and seemed to want to wait before committing more money to the road work. There were also discussions about the implications of ending the project at Canyons Village rather than going into the city limits.

Rodriguez warned that if Park City backed out of the partnership, the region would become “a laughing stock” and future funding would be put at risk.

“You can bet it won’t come here, not if we have to give back $25 million in federal funding or $30 million in state funding,” she said. “Let me rephrase: High Valley Transit and the county are not going to go back to [the Utah Department of Transportation] and say, ‘We promised we would deliver on this project where all the data says it will be successful in a benchmark.’ We’re not going to do that. So, one of our other partners is going to have to go back and say … we changed our mind.”

Park City Mayor Nann Worel encouraged all parties to find a compromise because she was not willing to jeopardize the relationships that the municipal government has spent years building. 

“I’m not going to do that,” Worel declared.

The city councilors reaffirmed their support for moving forward with the project at the end of the two-hour-long meeting despite initial suggestions that they should wait to take a vote.

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