Industry News
State Road 248 is used heavily by people traveling in the Snyderville Basin, the East Side of Summit County, and Wasatch County in Utah. Some spicy ideas have been thrown around at the Park City city hall to reduce traffic. One idea is a tunnel. State-funded research will assess whether a tunnel underneath the S.R. 248 entryway or parallel to the highway is viable. The other idea is extending the Rail Trail and using a gondola parallel to the S.R. 248. There have also been thoughts of including tolls with dynamic pricing, which means the price changes as the traffic conditions vary. Either action to relieve traffic will also benefit S.R. 224 because S.R. 224 intersects with S.R. 248.
This is not the first time there have been talks about using a gondola to free highway traffic. The idea of a gondola in Little Cottonwood Canyon has been very controversial.
- Related: Utah DOT Officially Recommends Gondola to Fix Traffic in Little Cottonwood Canyon – SnowBrains
The matter of reducing traffic along the S.R. 248 has been in discussion for many years. Putting people on buses and creating more paid parking spaces hasn’t relieved traffic enough. This has led to the high-roller ideas of the tunnel and gondola to fix the traffic issues once and for all. Although specific details are limited, the costs of the tunnel or gondola will likely run tens of millions of dollars.
In 2006, the gondola idea was shut down after it was deemed unfeasible. Further research determined the gondola would not reduce traffic. It was also unpopular at the time, and most locals were against the project.
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Let’s debate it for the next 10 – 20 years and then finally do something about it.