One more week to submit comments to UDOT regarding the Little Cottonwood Canyon EIS

Little Cottonwood Canyon. Photo: UDOT

LITTLE COTTONWOOD CANYON, Utah — The public comment period for the Utah Department of Transportation’s (UDOT) Little Cottonwood Canyon Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) ends on Friday, September 3.

In July, UDOT decided to extend the comment period to allow for a more thorough review of the Draft. It was originally set to end on August 9.

The two preferred alternatives include enhanced bus service in the shoulder lane on State Route 210 during high traffic and a gondola from the base station at La Caille.

You can submit a comment here.

Bus rider parking would be at either the gravel pit hub at the mouth of Big Cottonwood Canyon, or at the intersection of 9400 South and Highland Drive in Sandy. Buses would arrive every five minutes.

The gondola would require a base station near the mouth of Little Cottonwood Canyon, with roughly 1,500 parking spaces. The gondola would arrive every two minutes and would be able to carry a maximum of 35 people.

The Gondola Works Coalition has been formed to endorse a new gondola in Little Cottonwood. Alta, Snowbird, and Ski Utah are listed as endorsers of the project. Gondola Works Coalition says that the issue is a generational challenge and says that “57% of the 9 miles of SR 210 is threatened by 64 avalanche paths.” (The Gondola Works Coalition video is included below UDOT’s Little Cottonwood Canyon Draft EIS Preferred Alternatives Overview.)

The Wasatch Backcountry Alliance believes that both options are insufficient. “These solutions not only miss the target on making things better, but the train and gondola concepts threaten many of the things that make the Wasatch Mountains so amazing today.” The Wasatch Backcountry Alliance has Black Diamond, Kuhl, and Voile listed as their sponsors. (The Wasatch Alliance’s perspective is included below.)

Other ideas that are being considered along with the two plans include snow sheds, park-and-ride lots with transit service, improvements to Wasatch Boulevard, tolling or single occupancy restrictions, combating trailhead parking, and eliminating winter roadside parking above Snowbird Entry 1.

UDOT studied 124 different concepts over the past two years and has now funneled it down to two.