Utah’s transportation authorities have been puzzling over how to deal with snarled traffic heading up Little Cottonwood Canyon on State Route 210. Snowbird and Alta ski resorts are up there, which draw huge lines of cars puttering up the road in the winter, but the entire area is a beautiful attraction drawing visitors, hikers, viewshed enthusiasts, you name it.
Yesterday they announced their decision: A gondola, running from the mouth of the Canyon, up to near the Alta resort. The gondola would support large cars that hold 35 people, arriving every two minutes, whisking people to the terminus in 55 minutes; that’s about 20 minutes faster than it’s expected to take when traveling by car in the next couple decades. Some 4,000 tons of greenhouse gases per year would be eliminated, according to the proposal.
Ski resorts and interest groups love the plan. Municipal leaders aren’t so sure.
“This will allow time to implement sensible, cost-effective solutions like enhanced buses, mobility hubs, parking improvements and tolling before incurring massive public cost to build out infrastructure if other strategies work well,” said Monica Zoltanski, Mayor of the town of Sandy, where the gondola would depart. “Now is the time for residents, environmental groups, ski resorts, developers and elected officials to work together to deliver real progress to manage user demand for the canyon we all love and want to protect.”
“I remain very concerned about the watershed and environmental impacts of a gondola system in Little Cottonwood Canyon,” said SLC mayor Erin Mendenhall in a statement. “The city’s chief concern is that the gondola will create significant risk to the canyon watershed through its construction and operations, as well as by inducing substantial additional visitation and development pressures to the watershed.”
Estimated cost is $550 million. It is expected to be years away from opening, with expanded bus service attempting to deal with traffic in the meantime.
The decision is not set in stone, however. UDOT is accepting public comments for the next 45 days. You can submit comments here, or email littlecottonwoodEIS@utah.gov.
Photo: Greg Rakozy
I’m reading at my office, because it’s better than work, and out my window next to my desk is Little Cottonwood Canyon, maybe ten minutes from here. I’m all for finding a solution that relieves traffic up the canyon. But a gondola?
Why not just buy a whole fleet of buses? We already have the infrastructure for that: it’s Utah State Highway 210, Little Cottonwood Canyon Road. A mechanical problem on a gondola and the whole system shuts down: a mechanical problem on a bus—you just pull off to the side and let the next bus pass. When technology improves, buy new buses. Hybrid buses, electric buses, hydrogen-fuel buses, nuclear fusion buses, whatever.
Rather than build a whole new system just for the showiness of it, they should repurpose/upgrade the existing infrastructure. It’ll be cheaper and have a lower environmental impact than building a completely new thing.
how about a secret? there’s plenty of places, maybe not as lush or scenic as alamito (little cottonwood)? ya just gotta accept some differences…….adelante!
When is the snow at those resorts going to be a thing of the past, like glaciers in Glacier National Park?
They’ll be paying the bonds on that “$550 million” (try a trillion after all the ‘unexpected’ costs…) far into the future. Long after it was scrapped.
What a fantastic opportunity for graft!
55 minutes on a gondola? Hope they have bathrooms!
I hate to see a gondola being built with the profiteering of former public officials and politicians I would like to see a solution that is clean and free from Cronyism and pay off the political donors and friends
What would Saucerboy say?
Wait, is it April 1st already?
Jeff and Al both have excellent points, plus the environmental impact of constructing the gondola system.
Establish a park & ride in Sandy. Close UT-210 to traffic (except for bonafide residents, if there are any). Use best-technology buses. The idea is not unlike what the NPS is doing at Zion.
While your at it, expand TRAX service to have a bench line, running roughly from the University to LCC. They already have I215 torn up, might as well put light rail tracks down the middle
@Ryan – Yes!!!! The trax from the university along the bench would be awesome, not just for skiing, but also for all those in Hollday etc to get to University or the businesses near the uni.