OGDEN — City officials will ask the Salt Lake Organizing Committee to take a second look at using the Weber County Fairgrounds and the Ogden Regional Business and Industrial Center as "park-and-ride" transfer points for the 2002 Winter Olympics.
Citing a number of problems with a proposed 8,400-vehicle park-and-ride lot in South Weber, the city administration has prepared an "alternative" proposal for Olympic officials that would route Snowbasin ski venue-bound travelers through Ogden city instead.
Wayne Parker, Ogden's acting city manager, outlined that plan for the Wasatch Front Regional Council during its monthly meeting last week. The council is responsible for transportation planning in Salt Lake, Davis, Weber, Tooele and Morgan counties.
Parker said that in addition to accommodating Winter Olympics travelers, the city's proposal goes one step further than the current SLOC plan because it provides parking and transportation for an estimated 6,000 day skiers who will want to hit the slopes at Snowbasin Resort during the Olympics.
Day skiers would use the Ogden Intermodal Transportation Hub to be constructed west of Wall Avenue and 23rd Street as their transfer point, while Olympics spectators would use the fairgrounds and the business and industrial center.
"We're not asking you to support this yet," Parker told Wasatch Front mayors and commissioners, noting it still hasn't been submitted to SLOC officials for consideration. "We just want you to be aware" of the plan.
Parker conceded that SLOC transportation planners considered using the fairgrounds once before but opted for the South Weber park-and-ride option because it was closer to the Snowbasin venue and could easily handle the traffic with the construction of a new interchange on U.S. 89.
Since that time, however, federal transportation funding has not materialized as expected to help pay for the $23 million interchange or the $10 million park-and-ride facility — leaving those projects in financial limbo.
Wasatch Front officials plan to ask the Utah Legislature this session to bond for the $11 million needed to build the Cornia Drive interchange. In addition, Olympic transportation planners have been slashing costs on a series of park-and-ride lots in anticipation of obtaining reduced federal funding.
But neither of those funding sources is a sure thing, the regional council was told.
On the other hand, Parker said, Ogden's plan can accommodate Winter Games transportation needs at a reasonable cost because the fairgrounds and the Regional Business and Industrial Center — formerly Defense Depot Ogden — are existing facilities with amenities for travelers and plenty of parking space.
Don Bruey, Olympics planning coordinator for Ogden, estimates transportation costs will increase by about $1.8 million to lease the 125 buses and hire the drivers needed to cover the 14 minutes that would be added to each trip.
But he also indicated that amount would be more than offset by the savings from not building a $10 million park-and-ride lot that will be ripped out once the Winter Games are over.
Another advantage to the Ogden proposal, Parker said, is that Olympics-bound spectators could avoid the heavy winds and chilly weather conditions that plague the mouth of the Weber Canyon during the winter.
And as an added attraction, visitors could enjoy cultural events already being planned for the fairgrounds regardless of where the transfer sites are finally located.