Utah Transportation Commission Approves $109.9 Million Park City Bus Rapid Transit Project

Commissioner Tom Jacobson, who lives in the Park City area, spent much of a Utah Transportation Commission meeting trying to kill the SR-224 Bus Rapid Transit project before being overruled 6-1 by his colleagues. His objection: High Valley Transit was building something out of sync with Park City Transit, which is separately exploring its own BRT-style services. "We need to have a coordinated system," Jacobson said. "We don't need to build two bridges to nowhere."

The commission's vote cleared the way for a $109.9 million project that will run dedicated bus lanes along just over 7 miles of State Route 224, from the Kimball Junction transit center to the Old Town Transit Center near Park City's Historic Main Street. Funding comes from the state transportation commission, Summit County, Park City, and High Valley Transit. To limit financial exposure, the bid was structured with a guaranteed maximum price. "That way, a lot of the risk is baked into the contractor's price," said Gabe Shields, High Valley Transit's chief development officer.

Six potential stops anchor the alignment: the Kimball Junction transit center area, Canyons Village at Park City, Bobsled Boulevard, Thaynes Canyon Drive, the A-Fresh Market on Park Avenue, and the Old Town Transit Center. Once complete, free-fare buses will run every 10 minutes along the corridor. High Valley Transit Executive Director Caroline Rodriguez told KPCW in September 2025 the agency expects to carry over 5,000 riders per day when the system is operational.

Summit County Council Chairman Canice Harte framed the project in workforce terms. "Really what we're doing is we're moving the heartbeat of our community, our workforce, to and from work every morning," he said. "Summit County is fully on board with this. We're completely invested." SR-224 is one of only two regional points of entry into Park City, serving a local economy that depends on more than 10,000 employees commuting in daily.

The route has been piloted informally for several years by using the highway shoulder as a bus-only lane during winter ski seasons. That approach validated the concept, but the commission vote now authorizes formal reconstruction of that shoulder space, along with enhanced boarding platforms and intersection signaling.

Construction has already been under way in stages. Crews began restriping lanes and removing concrete medians along SR-224 in fall 2025. The next major phase started April 6, with five segments stretching from Kimball Junction to Park City scheduled for work running through November. Shields described the scope of what lies ahead: "We see intensive construction in 2026 as well as 2027, and then into 2028, that's really where we're buttoning things up — so we're doing landscaping, aesthetics, striping, things of that nature." Drivers will retain access to two travel lanes in each direction throughout construction, and no work is planned between December and March. Project completion is expected in fall 2028.

The project traces back to a 2018 Valley-to-Mountain Alternatives Analysis led by Summit County in cooperation with Park City, UDOT, and the Utah Transit Authority. Park City identified the need for dedicated bus lanes 15 years ago. Rodriguez called SR-224 "the region's most critical corridor" and said the partnership with UDOT, Summit County, and Park City has been in the works for nearly a decade.