Before winter hits – Prospector Ave. will be Park City’s first complete street of its size. Stapp Construction started early Monday morning. Melissa Allison has more:
Commuters on Prospector Ave. should add a buffer to their travel time since the street will be turned into a westbound, one-way road starting early Tuesday and will remain throughout the construction period.
Public Improvements Engineer Corey Legge says there will be plenty of signage to direct people.
“We will have detour signs so just follow the detour signs onto Sidewinder and that will route you to your destination," Legge said. "And then we want to work with the businesses on proper advertising so that they can have their customers following the correct routes to get to their destination safely and just keeping it westbound for that consistency for something that commuters can rely on.”
That means people will only be able to turn on to Prospector Ave. from Sidewinder Dr.
Mind you, it will be one lane for the westbound road and though all of the parking lots will remain accessible, cars are not able to park on the road.
Legge said it will create a bit more traffic for Sidewinder and Bonanza Dr. but it won’t create too much of a delay. And – there’s always the bus.
“All the transit routes will be maintained so there will still be public transit on this corridor," Legge said. "All the routes currently go westbound which is part of the reason we chose that direction so there won’t be an impact to that.”
The one-way road will stay in place throughout the construction. Legge said, there is another option to avoid the slower traffic.
“All of these prospector lots are parking for the PSPOA," Legge said. "There is an interior walking corridor that can help them get to their destination if they’d like to park on Sidewinder. That’s going to be other routes for walkability standpoints, it’s a really nice corridor between all of those businesses.”
Legge anticipated the construction will finish up about late October.
Turning Prospector Ave. into a complete street cost about $2.5 million but with the help of a federal grant through the small urban funding program, Park City didn’t have to dig too deep into their pockets.
A complete street is described as a road that is safe and accessible for everyone including pedestrians, bicyclists, motorists and transit riders.
I’m Melissa Allison, KPCW News.