Follow-up: Road Construction

This is an email from Provo City about the upcoming road work around Seven Peaks Blvd.

There may be some mis-understanding floating around about the reconfiguration of Seven Peaks Blvd and the extent of the construction to be done in the area of Seven Peaks Blvd and Center Street.

In the next couple of weeks WW Clyde will be rotomilling the existing asphalt on Seven Peaks Blvd between 300 North and Center Street in order to re-pave this roadway as part of their contract with Central Utah Water Conservancy District to repair damage to the roadway caused by the construction the 60" water line.  The roadway widths through this area will not change, but the striping will be changed to include a 12' travel lane, a 5' bike lane and a 7' parking lane/shoulder in each direction.

In addition to this work being done by WW Clyde, the City has contracted with Sunroc to construct the extension of Seven Peaks Blvd from Center Street to 300 South through the old State Hospital Orchard.  This project will begin shortly after Labor Day and will include construction of a new roundabout at the intersection of Seven Peaks Blvd and Center Street (where Seven Peaks Blvd turns into Center Street) that will tie the four legs (currently three legs) of this intersection together in a practical manner.  As part of this project , the striping re-configuration to one travel lane will be extended to 900 East and will match the current striping configuration on Center Street west of 900 East.

As you indicated Gary Briton has been opposed to this change as it will undoubtedly reduce the number of cars that will be parking in the paid parking at Seven Peaks. Mr. Briton in his communications with Mayor Curtis,  requested that we conduct a traffic count to determine as to whether the single travel lane would support the traffic volume associated with the water park and surrounding neighborhoods.  We conducted traffic counts on Seven Peaks Blvd over two weekend periods (Thursday to Monday) and the traffic volumes do not meet our minimum standard for a multi-lane facility and showed that the single travel lanes will comfortably accommodate the traffic volumes in this area.  This information was relayed to Gary Briton by Mayor Curtis several weeks ago.

We are aware of the concerns regarding backups on Seven Peaks Blvd associated with water park visitors waiting to pay to get into the parking lots.  We will be working with the water park to revise their lot loading strategies  in order to eliminate the stacking that occurs on Seven Peaks Blvd and other City streets.  There will also be parking restrictions implemented along these areas that will allow for passage of vehicles that might otherwise be blocked by park visitors waiting to get into the parking lot.

Hopefully this information has been helpful and has answered the questions that you have.  Let me know if there are any other questions that I could answer regarding the upcoming work in this area.

Respectfully,

Brian M. Torgersen, Traffic Engineer
Provo City Engineering Department
1377 South 350 East
Provo, UT 84606
Office: 801-852-6745
Fax:    801-852-6730
btorgersen@provo.utah.gov