Utah Receives $26 Million for 2002 Winter Olympics

Public Roads, Jan, 2001

Utah will receive grants totaling $26 million in DOT funds for 2002 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games transportation projects.

During the Olympic Games, spectators will use a variety of intermodal mass transit options to get to competition venues in the Salt Lake City area. For events scheduled in the mountains, spectators will drive to park-and-ride lots located within eight kilometers (five miles) of the venues, and a transit shuttle system will transport them to competition sites. For competitions in the valley, spectators will use a variety of mass transit options, including light rail, buses, and park-and-walk lots.

Projects funded tinder the $13 million Federal Transit Administration combined grants include expenses for additional buses and light-rail vehicles to supplement existing transit service in Utah, construction of the Olympic Loop Busway at Snowbasin Ski Resort, park-and-ride lots, walk-and-ride lots, and other facilities that form the Olympic transit shuttle system.

Utah will also receive $12.9 million in discretionary funds from the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). These grants include $8 million for the widening of 1-15, a vital link in the Salt Lake City region, and $1.9 million for improvements to roads that access Wasatch Mountain State Park and the widening of Soldier Hollow Road, an important access road to cross-country skiing and biathlon venues.

Additional projects funded under FHWA grants include nearly $2 million for two intelligent transportation systems, $469,750 for the Utah-Colorado "Isolated Empire" rail connector planning study, $400,000 in corridor planning funds, $75,000 for three projects in the Scenic Byways Program, and $68,500 tinder the Innovative Bridge Research and Construction Program.