Summit County Council members and Snyderville Basin Special Recreation District officials are considering various options for a pedestrian crossing on State Road 224 in the Snyderville Basin, including an underground tunnel or an above ground bridge.

Wednesday, officials discussed the financial and geographical feasibility of a crossing on S.R. 224 and Bear Hollow Drive near the Sunpeak area.

“We have been working on this project for a couple years,” District Director Rena Jordan said. “It is a really difficult intersection and is proving to be more difficult by the day.”

The Basin Recreation District has allocated $3 million for the pedestrian crossing that would connect the paved Millennium Trail on the west side of S.R 224 to the existing paved trail on the east side of S.R. 224 and provide another option for Parleys Park Elementary School students for crossing the busy highway.

Council members and district officials spent nearly an hour discussing the location and type of crossing that should be put in place.

According to a Basin Recreation District staff report, four designs under consideration are:

  • Overpass crossing between S.R. 224 and Silver Springs Road: $3.9 million
  • Double underpass crossing between S.R. 224 and Silver Springs Road: $4.9 million
  • Underpass crossing between Bear Hollow Drive and S.R. 224: $4.5 million
  • Single bridge overpass north of Bear Hollow Drive on S.R. 224: $2.7 million

Other alternatives would not include a grade change and would have users crossing at street level at the intersection of S.R. 224 and Silver Springs Road or at the cross walk between St. Luke’s Episcopal Church and Parleys Park Elementary School.

Jordan said this location poses serious constraints, including underground utilities, stream culverts, and necessary access through private property.

“It’s just a really difficult intersection,” she said. “We don’t have $5 million to do this, but we are trying to create something that people would actually use.”

The Basin Recreation District is using $1.2 million from a 2014 bond and $1.8 million from a 2010 bond, in addition to the $44,000 already spent for engineering consultants, to pay for the project.

“We are also concerned about whether or not, when push comes to shove, UDOT will let us do this in regards to the amount of distraction it’s going to have,” Jordan said.

County Council members seemed apprehensive about a crossing at the location, instead suggesting it be moved further north or south along the road.

“From a safety perspective, is that the right place in that corridor, is Silver Springs the right place for it to solve problems,” council member Claudia McMullin asked. “I mean is this the right place to cross 224?”

There are three other schools in that vicinity and other neighborhoods in that area, McMullin said.

“I want to broaden the conversation to be more than just about two neighborhoods,” she said. “What’s the purpose of this? What are the most people that we can affect? What are the most problems that we can solve? Is this the right place?”

Council member Roger Armstrong asked whether this project would simply encourage the placement of “poles and bridges up and down 224?”

“If we are building a rec facility let’s talk about a rec facility, if this is a rail extension let’s talk about it, but if this is about safety, let’s find out how dangerous this intersection is before we start altering the landscape,” Armstrong said.

Jordan said if it was “truly a conversation for the Recreation District we would go up the road.”

“We are trying to work through creating a transportation solution,” she said. “This is not what we do. This is why are dealing with county staff and UDOT, who is very enthused about having it at this intersection to create a better flow of traffic.”

County Council members and Basin Recreation District officials ultimately agreed to revisit the discussion at an unspecified later date. They also agreed more public hearings would be held on the topic before any definitive decision is reached.

To view the staff report about the pedestrian crossing go to http://summitcounty.org/DocumentCenter/View/1715.