Seasonal road openings delayed as UDOT works to clear record-breaking snowpack

COTTONWOOD HEIGHTS, Utah — Utah Department of Transportation crews have been busy working to clear seasonal routes but because of all the snow still up in the mountains, only about half of the roads are reopened.

“There is still a lot of snow that’s up in the higher elevations,” said John Gleason, UDOT spokesperson. “With all of the avalanches it wasn’t just a matter of plowing the roads, but also clearing some of the landslide debris rocks, trees that have been deposited along there.”

This week, crews successfully reopened Monte Cristo east of Ogden and Guardsman Pass up Big Cottonwood Canyon.

🚧 ROAD OPEN: Guardsman Pass #SR224 is now open for summer!

Reminders:
🚗 It’s a narrow road, please respect all travelers & do NOT park along the road
⚠️ Obey all signage & posted speed limits
🐶 No dogs are allowed in Big Cottonwood Canyon (SR-190) as it is a watershed pic.twitter.com/KuE16nWoXm

— UDOT Cottonwood Canyons (@UDOTcottonwoods) June 8, 2023

“There’s a lot of people that use Guardsman Pass not only for recreating, driving through there and looking at the views but also who use it to commute from Park City into Salt Lake County,” Gleason said.

So far UDOT has opened five of the nine seasonal routes statewide with the hopes of clearing the rest in the next couple of weeks, after addressing more critical needs.

“Like filling potholes, because they can be dangerous, flood mitigation, and plowing the roads…those have to be the priority,” Gleason said. “When we have the resources and the time to do it, we can get those seasonal routes open.”

Next week UDOT plans to open Mirror Lake east of Kamas, another critical route for travelers.