PROVO — As Brigham Young University alumni descend on Provo for Homecoming week activities, they will be greeted by a major overhaul to a long-cherished site.
BYU, Provo City and private developer Stephen Stewart unveiled Tuesday the new Y Mountain Trailhead, the product of a joint project that came together over the past six months.
Stewart said the project — which resulted in an expanded parking lot, restrooms, a helipad and improved landscaping — was a much-needed improvement to one of Provo's most important landmarks.
"I hike the Y every week, two or three times," Stewart said. "I've done it for years, and what we had up there was an embarrassment."
The new parking lot, with room for about 80 cars, replaces an unmarked field where drivers parked haphazardly and often encroached on private space.
Provo officials became aware of the opportunity to do something at the site when Questar informed the city that it would be installing a gas line through the area.
"We just kind of got together and said, 'Hey, this is going to be torn up anyway, so what can we do?' " said Max Mitchell, Provo's assistant director of parks and recreation.
Provo approached BYU, which owns the trailhead land, but neither entity had money for a major project.
At that point, Stewart volunteered the services of his development company, SGS Associates, and secured material donations from numerous contractors for the parking lot and rest room facility. SGS Associates provided the labor for the construction of the rest rooms and the road base for the parking lot.
BYU provided the landscaping materials, then secured the labor to put them in through Eagle Scout projects and campus service organizations. Provo provided engineering services, utility connections and poured the asphalt.
The project also included a helipad that will be used for maintenance of the Y, rescue operations and firefighting.
"It is a vast improvement," said Roy Peterman, director of grounds maintenance for BYU. "It's safer."
The trailhead is also a part of the Bonneville Shoreline Trail, and Peterman said that increased traffic meant that something had to be done to make the area safer and more presentable.
Mitchell said the project could not have been done by any group on its own.
"We really appreciate the cooperation . . . this is something that really needed to be done," Mitchell said.
Now that the project is done, Stewart said he hopes more people will become aware of the trail and use it.
"If people would use the trail more, I'd say it would be a fountain of youth," he said. "It keeps the heart and lungs in shape and gets you up out of the valley and away from your cares. It's a great asset in this community and a lot of people don't even know about it."
E-mail: jtwitchell@desnews.com