Canyon Tunnel Talk Turns to Transit

this is more reasonable

Canyon Tunnel Talk Turns to Transit
Jul 12, 2007 by Julie Rose

(KCPW News) The proposal to bore a tunnel connecting Big and Little Cottonwood Canyons has been fomenting since it resurfaced in a flash of controversy last November. But lately the talk has turned from tunnels to transit, at the urging of Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon.

"The tunnel's a very expensive option and a contentious one," says Corroon. "I'd like to look at what works and what everybody can agree upon first, before we go down a path like that. Looking at buses, looking at park and rides - those are the solutions I thought people were positive about from all sides."

Mayor Corroon brought representatives from the ski industry, environmental groups and transportation together last week to discuss solutions to growing traffic concerns in the canyons.

State Senator Carlene Walker led the most recent effort to revisit the tunnel proposal in November, but says she's become frustrated with the opposition and has quit pushing for it. However, she says traffic in the canyons is an urgent issue.

And Save Our Canyons executive director Lisa Schmidt notes the problem is no longer just ski season.

"We're seeing cars parked up and down the canyons in the summer, causing headaches for the sherrif with people darting in and out of cars," says Schmidt. "Not to mention everything that comes with cars - pollution and run off and just backed-up traffic and inconvenience."

Schmidt hopes the tunnel idea is finally dead, but suspect it's probably just lost steam and will resurface again in a few more years. Ski Utah director Nathan Rafferty says the resorts are not backing a specific solution to traffic issues, but are open to the idea of a tunnel, train, gondola or added bus service.

Mayor Corroon also plans to request the county revisit the Canyons Master Plan, which was last updated in the 1980s.