Little Cottonwood Canyon’s (LCC) proposed gondola may be held up in the courts, but Utah Department of Transportation’s (UDOT) cost calculations are under new scrutiny.
When UDOT announced in 2023 that a gondola up LCC was the “most cost-effective” way to solve canyon traffic, it was already on shaky ground. Two years later, new evidence makes it clear: UDOT’s math never worked, and in today’s economy it makes even less sense.
A 2025 published analysis by faculty and students in BYU’s Department of Civil and Construction Engineering exposed serious flaws in UDOT’s financial modeling. Among the mistakes: UDOT used an inappropriately low discount rate, cut the analysis period short, ignored major risks and failed to conduct proper scenario testing. Once corrected, the results flipped — enhanced bus service, not a gondola, came out as the lower life-cycle cost, lower risk option in nearly every case. This wasn’t a marginal difference — it was decisive. Buses were the cheaper choice almost every time, with far less financial risk to taxpayers.
And that was before the economy made gondolas even more expensive. Steel, aluminum and copper for 22 towers now face 50% tariffs. Gondola cabins, cables and drives — largely imported from Europe — are tariffed at 15%. Meanwhile, federal transportation dollars are shrinking, leaving Utah taxpayers to shoulder more of the burden. Taken together, these factors make UDOT’s 2023 cost estimates not just outdated but also dangerously misleading. Any fair re-analysis today would only widen the cost gap in favor of buses. What was once projected to be a tax burden over $1,000 per Utah family appears to be rapidly growing. And this does not include annual operating expenses.
UDOT’s track record on costs already raises red flags. In its 2023 Record of Decision, UDOT said Phase 1 (enhanced bus) would cost $110 million. Just weeks later, it gave legislators and the press a revised figure of $240 million — a 118% jump, part from scope creep, part inflation. If UDOT’s cost figures are so malleable, how reliable or firm are its estimates for the longest gondola in the world, a project it has never built? Remember the I-15 Davis County extension cost increased more than 100% shortly after construction started.
The BYU study warned of these very risks: UDOT underestimated the gondola’s cost while overstating bus costs. Now, with tariffs, inflation and supply chain issues added to the mix, the gondola’s financial case collapses entirely. Even the private ski resorts that would benefit most from the project have shown no interest in investing their own money in a project that primarily benefits them. If the economics were sound, they’d be first in line, not standing back while taxpayers foot the bill.
Supporters often argue the gondola would be a “once-in-a-generation” solution. But Utah doesn’t need an experimental mega project — it needs flexible, scalable transportation that adapts to demand. Bus service can expand or contract with seasons, adjust routes and incorporate cleaner technology as it advances. A gondola, by contrast, locks taxpayers into a single, rigid option, vulnerable to cost overruns and operational challenges that no one has fully accounted for.
So why does UDOT continue to defend the gondola? Utahns should be asking legislators that very question — especially when support for it in polls has only been in the 20% to 30% range and more pressing transportation needs across the state remain unfunded. Rural highways, urban transit upgrades and basic safety improvements are all waiting for investment. Every dollar poured into an overpriced gondola is a dollar not spent where it could truly improve mobility, save lives and serve a larger number of Utahns.
The public deserves transparency, not outdated numbers and wishful thinking. Before committing taxpayers to billions in spending, UDOT must recalculate its analysis with today’s economic realities and share the results openly. Until then, advancing the gondola is not just unwise — it’s fiscally irresponsible.
Enhanced bus service remains the smarter solution: cheaper, more flexible and far less risky in the face of global uncertainty. Utahns should demand that our leaders put common sense and fiscal responsibility first and stop pouring taxpayer money into a project whose numbers never did — and still don’t — add up.