Confirming its pivot away from any idea of a gondola, the Utah Department of Transportation has cleared plans to address winter congestion in Big Cottonwood Canyon with more transit service and bus access.

UDOT said its decision Wednesday to approve an environment assessment of its plans for the popular canyon will now set in motion final designs, purchasing of rights-of-way and construction along State Route 190, all aimed at easing those long, snowy snarls of bumper-to-bumper vehicles during ski season.

“We’ve all experienced winter traffic backing up in Big Cottonwood Canyon,” Devin Weder, Cottonwood Canyons transit program manager, said in a statement. “These improvements are designed to give people another reliable option to reach the canyon without sitting in hours of traffic.”

“This is about making canyon travel more predictable and less stressful,” Weder added. “More frequent buses, better access and improved traffic management will help people spend less time waiting in traffic and more time enjoying the mountains.”

Home to Brighton and Solitude Mountain resorts, the 15-mile stretch has been notorious for its long red snake of tail lights on busy ski days.

A “better experience” by 2028 ski season

Possibly in time for skiers hitting powder in 2028, UDOT said, visitors to the beloved canyon will see a host of new services and facilities all along that mostly two-lane stretch — including a new 1,750-stall park-and-ride structure near the mouth of the canyon — to help bus service run more smoothly and “a better experience” for users.

And yes, there will be tolls, according to UDOT, to encourage “more visitors to use transit instead of driving personal vehicles in the canyon.”

Not included in those plans is any vestige of a gondola, an idea that sparked public controversy in 2022 when it was proposed for adjacent Little Cottonwood Canyon, the site of Alta Ski Area and Snowbird.

Weder has said neither such a cable-car system nor a train would work in Big Cottonwood Canyon, a verdict now confirmed with UDOT’s approval of the environmental study it launched in 2025 for the stretch from Ft. Union Boulevard to Brighton.

What skiers and autumn leaf-seekers venturing up the canyon will see, according to the state agency, is far more buses running more regularly — along with transit-friendly amenities.

What’s in UDOT’s plan?

UDOT’s plan for $264.5 million in improvements to Big Cottonwood Canyon will bring:

• The new 1,750-stall parking structure at the canyon’s mouth, designed as a hub for visitors to shed their cars and hop on a bus. There will also be a new interchange on Wasatch Boulevard, for better access to the parking hub.

• Bus service likely seven days a week, typically running from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. from late November to mid-April, with buses leaving the parking lot at the base every 10-15 minutes at first as the improvements take shape, and eventually every seven minutes by 2050.

• New indoor bus stops at Solitude and Brighton — tentatively, with lockers and restrooms — as well as added safety features, platforms and pedestrian walkways at existing bus stops at Cardiff Fork, Spruces campground, Silver Fork and Silver Lake/Solitude Nordic Center.

• A dedicated bus-only lane at the parking hub located at the gravel pit at the base of the canyon and a lane at Brighton loop giving buses priority and letting them bypass regular traffic.

Assuming the plan hits full throttle by 2050, it would require 25 to 30 buses at peak hours according to UDOT’s tally.

Wednesday’s announcement said that $114 million of the estimated $264.5 million in taxpayer-funded upgrades along Big Cottonwood Canyon were already on state books, as part of Little Cottonwood Canyon improvements for the parking structure at the gravel pit and Wasatch Boulevard Exchange.

UDOT also said it would improve traffic management with a variably priced toll station near the Moonbeam parking lot at Solitude, by the resort’s enhanced bus stop. That, according to the agency, will improve bus efficiency “by encouraging carpooling and transit use.”

In evaluating how to implement that winter-only toll, UDOT has said the mechanism would be electronic, functioning a lot like the tolling lanes on Interstate 15. The toll fee would ratchet up or down, depending on the day’s congestion in the canyon.