Nestled beside the Jordanelle Reservoir, the town of Hideout is a small, secluded community that can be hard to reach by bike, bus or on foot. Town leaders hope to change that. 

Last week, Hideout announced it was awarded a $150,000 grant from the Utah Department of Transportation to develop a comprehensive transportation master plan that will focus on addressing multi-modal transportation options through town and the surrounding area. 

It’s one step closer to transportation and safety goals outlined in the town’s developing General Plan, according to Hideout Town Administrator Jan McCosh. 

“We actively pursued (the grant) because we have so much growth in the area, and we don’t want to repeat some of the errors of, say, Kimball Junction,” McCosh said, referencing high traffic. “Because of the generous size of the grant, we have excellent facilitators who have already reached out to us.”

McCosh said the transportation master plan will serve as a way to connect Hideout with nearby regions and municipalities. That includes the Silver Meadows annexation area, which will have multi-modal routes into “older” areas of Hideout. 

The master plan will address issues such as traffic and safety — necessary topics in transportation planning. Mayor Ralph Severini said the grant is a solid “first step.”

“You want planning to be your foundation,” Severini said. “We’re already working with UDOT in co-funding and co-delivering some safety improvements in town on (S.R.) 248 at the Ross Creek entrance.”

Severini said that the high-traffic area has been a safety concern for residents. 

“We’re doing some things with UDOT productively already. So, I just see this as a next stage of … multi-modal planning,” Severini said. 

The mayor has already met with UDOT officials such as Carlos Braceras to talk safety, public transportation, traffic and trails. When it comes to the $150,000 grant from UDOT, Severini said the first step, aside from planning, is addressing the most pressing needs. 

“I think it begins with integration of our community with other communities,” Severini said. “We also have a lot of priorities going forward with the town in terms of where the new developments are occurring.”

That includes the Richardson Flat and Silver Meadows development areas. 

McCosh also said the increased number of trails will benefit the active community members.

“We have a lot of active outdoor enthusiasts, a very Park City demographic who enjoy the outdoors. They enjoy snowshoeing, cross-country skiing, and we want to make trails available for active transportation,” McCosh said. 

Thinking bigger, Severini said even water transportation is under consideration, given the town’s proximity to the Jordanelle Reservoir. 

“I’ve noticed the decrease in quality of life as we spend more time in traffic,” McCosh said. “I think getting the traffic plan right is very important for quality of life for all of us in the region, so I’m really pleased about this grant.”

Although Hideout is small, McCosh said residents’ needs are just as important as those in larger areas. 

“We’re a tiny city, and (this grant) allows us to professionally address traffic concerns,” McCosh said. 

Severini agreed. 

“It’s such a critical issue for all of us,” Severini said. 

The post Hideout is thinking big on transportation solutions appeared first on Park Record.

The Utah Department of Transportation released its draft environmental impact statement for the Heber Valley bypass. The highway-style road is to be built to the west of Heber City, featuring a multi-use trail and frontage roads to provide local access. The bypass intends to keep traffic from U.S. 40 off of Heber City’s Main Street.

UDOT has identified Alternative B as its preferred route. Alternative B cuts through the North Fields between Potters Lane and 900 North.

The other route that was being considered, Alternative A, would have kept traffic on U.S. 40 between those two roads. 

Alternative B is estimated to cost $760.5 million, almost $49 million more than Alternative A. 

“Alternative B provides the strongest long-term transportation benefit for the community,” said UDOT Project Manager Craig Hancock, UDOT project manager. “The Heber Valley is growing, and this solution will help keep people moving and protect historic Heber City Main Street into the future.”

The draft environmental impact statement has been in the works since early 2020, with the final project announced on Wednesday. UDOT’s identification of a preferred route comes after the whittling down of five alternatives to two in March. 

According to the draft environmental impact statement, Alternative B is “better for regional mobility,” with faster travel times and shorter travel paths. UDOT’s data predicts that local travel time on Main Street from SR-32 to the intersection of U.S. 189 and U.S. 40 will be 20 minutes and 30 seconds by 2050 if no action is taken. If Alternative B is built, that time is halved to 10 minutes and 15 seconds. 

It’s also “better for local mobility,” with fewer “failing intersections” and shorter queues on Main Street. UDOT predicts traffic backups of 17,100 feet between 500 North and SR-32 by 2050. Alternative A reduces that number to 3,500 feet, while Alternative B brings it down to 700 feet. 

The statement claims that Alternative B is more likely to attract regional truck traffic away from Main Street, will result in less out-of-direction travel and is overall a “longer term solution.”

But the bypass is not without impacts.

The foremost of these is the impacts to the wetlands of the North Fields. Alternative B will impact 54 acres of canals, ditches, perennial streams and wetlands, according to the draft environmental impact statements. That’s opposed to Alternative A’s 23 impacted acres.

“We know that the North Fields are vital to the essence of the community, and we want to do as much as we can to protect this special area. UDOT will prioritize the North Fields for wetland mitigation, protecting at least two acres for every acre of wetland impacted,” Hancock said. 

He added that the bypass would be a “limited access road” and that UDOT would prevent any further transportation access in the North Fields.

“UDOT would not allow access on the corridor except at interchanges shown. The land would be protected in perpetuity, not privately owned or up for development,” he said. 

There are some areas in which Alternative B has fewer impacts than Alternative A. For example, Alternative B will require eight potential relocations of homes and businesses built or already under construction, as opposed to Alternative A’s 27.

Alternative B also has fewer adverse effects on historic buildings, with one affected instead of four. 

Although Alternative B is UDOT’s preferred bypass route, the decision has not been finalized. A public comment period on the draft environmental statement begins Friday and will continue through March 9. 

Residents are invited to make public comments identifying specific concerns about the chosen route at hebervalleyeis.udot.utah.gov, via phone by calling 801-210-0498, by emailing hebervalleyeis@utah.gov or by mailing a letter addressed to “Heber Valley Corridor EIS c/o HDR” to 2825 E. Cottonwood Parkway #200, Cottonwood Heights, UT 84121.

UDOT will present the draft environmental impact statement during the Wasatch County Council work session at 4 p.m. on Jan. 14 and the Heber City Council work session at 4 p.m. on Jan. 20.

UDOT will also hold two public meetings during the public comment period. 

One is a Zoom meeting, which will not allow opportunity for public comments, from 6 to 7:30 p.m. on Jan. 27. 

The second is an open house taking place from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 28 at the Wasatch High School library. Project team members will be available at the open house to answer questions. A court reporter will record public comments during a presentation and formal hearing from 6 to 7:30 p.m.

UDOT will release a final environmental impact statement by the summer. This statement will include responses to public comments. Following the release of the final environmental impact statement, the bypass can enter construction.

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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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High Valley Transit is embarking on a short-range planning effort to upgrade transit services across the Wasatch Back over the next five years by addressing gaps and improving productivity.

The transit district hosted its first open house to discuss the plan at the Summit County Richins Building on Monday as it makes its way through the planning process. High Valley Transit is in the second of five phases, which is designed to identify unmet needs in the community and survey the public on what improvements they’d like to see.

The third step to discuss service alternatives is expected to kick off in November with the next phase, strategy and impact analysis, scheduled for December and January. High Valley Transit’s goal is to implement any changes by March 2025.

Possibilities for the future include more frequent service on bus routes, expanded service to new areas that are currently hard to reach and more reliable microtransit services in Summit and Wasatch counties, according to principal transit planner David Perlmutter. He works for Via Transportation, which is contracted by High Valley Transit to provide digital infrastructure for its transportation systems.

Community members are encouraged to provide public input to help officials develop an action plan that addresses local connections and regional collaboration. High Valley Transit is considering factors such as demographic information, employment density and age to determine which improvements to make. 

Perlmutter highlighted the importance of understanding what motivates people to use public transit. 

Areas with higher transit needs include places with zero-vehicle households, which are most concentrated in the Trailside and Kimball Junction neighborhoods, and communities with higher poverty rates such as Old Town, Deer Valley, Quinn’s Junction, Kamas and Francis. 

They also want to consider where there is a high density of workers living such as Prospector Square or Heber City, which has become a big user of High Valley Transit. Perlmutter said that was a big motivation for extending the 106 route down into Wasatch County.

Most High Valley Transit riders are between 15 to 24 years old, while senior citizens in the Wasatch Back don’t ride as often as in other places.

Around a dozen community members attended the open house this week, most of whom identified themselves as current or former High Valley Transit users. They raised specific issues with overcrowding on the 101 Spiro route from Deer Valley to Jeremy Ranch, the need for more bus stops, missed connections or consistency and seat unavailability. 

High Valley Transit officials said the problems are more of a supply issue than a problem with demands for service. Perlmutter said the transit district is punching well above its weight.

Beth Ko, a transportation planner with High Valley Transit, said the transit district is also considering adding additional service areas to the 107 route and may add another route dubbed the Snowball Express to better serve the Snyderville Basin, Canyons Village and Park City Mountain. There’s also a chance a new line might run to Deer Valley East Village.

The Board of Trustees was expected to discuss some of the options during a meeting on Tuesday morning. Meeting dates for Kamas and Coalville will be announced soon.

A community survey to help drive the decisions will be open for the next few weeks. Additional information is available at highvalleytransit.org

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