Isaac Hale, Daily Herald file photo

Despite a short delay, Utah County residents will have another public transportation option before the end of the summer.

The Utah Transit Authority announced Aug. 8 will be the official first day that passengers will be able to stop at the new Vineyard FrontRunner Station.

UTA is hosting an opening ceremony for the station on Aug. 12 at 10 a.m., and Vineyard will host a community celebration the next day.

The station was expected to open sometime in spring, but was postponed because of changes made to the original designs to accommodate unforeseen growth within Vineyard.

“The postponement of the opening was originally due to getting designs finalized for the intersection of Main Street and 800 North, which is also the Vineyard Connector,” Vineyard City Engineer Naseem Ghandour said. “We were trying to make the accommodations for what the current needs are for the traffic.”

Courtesy Vineyard City

The Utah Department of Transportation’s continuous monitoring of traffic volumes made Vineyard aware that traffic grew significantly within the past two years, and adjustments needed to be made to the project before it could open.

“UDOT recognized that there was a high spike in traffic since the last study, so we did some accommodations to the redo the designs and include pedestrian trails,” Ghandour said. “Right now, people would be going to the downtown area, so [we] had to look into ways pedestrians didn’t have to mix with construction equipment.”

Another cause for the delay was the ongoing supply chain issues seen all over the country since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Our contractors were working to ensure we were able to get the concrete in a timely manner,” Ghandour said. “We couldn’t take small batches of concrete. We must have concrete continuously to ensure everything was being built properly. We wanted to make sure we weren’t just building thing this for the original design, but to be sustainable.”

The station is complete, save for a few minor details. Ghandour told the Daily Herald the parking lot, sidewalks and bus drop-off areas are finished, they are just waiting on final hookups from the project’s developers.

Courtesy of Katheryn Newman

George Angerbauer, a public relations strategist with UTA, said their portion of the project is also nearly complete.

“There are just a few items that need to be completed for the ability of busses to enter the site and get access,” Angerbauer said. “Part of the project goes through the transit orient development and that part is in various stages of completion, including an intersection and traffic light, that will be completed around the middle of July.”

UTA’s FrontRunner system makes stops from Ogden to Provo, and will include the Vineyard Station in August, according to Angerbauer.

He encouraged the public to download the Transit App in order to discover the best way to plan travel using public resources. All bus and Utah Valley Express services can also be found on the app.

Vineyard Communication Manager Kathryn Newman was excited that the station finally has an opening date. She said the people of Vineyard have waited on this project for a long time and that it is a reflection of Vineyard’s expansion and growth.

“What this station does is lays the foundation for the next steps of development for Vineyard,” Newman said. “So, where the station is, will become Vineyard’s downtown. It’s the beginning of the area known as Vineyard’s Station or Downtown Vineyard. There will be a lot of development surrounding the station. There’s going to be a promenade connecting the station to the lake and residential and commercial development.”

According to Newman, Vineyard’s population is around 20,000, and she expects it to expand to about 50,000 people.

Ghandour believes the station will create a bridge between socioeconomic gaps — between urbanized areas surrounded by suburbs.

“This will allow the people of Vineyard access to jobs in Salt Lake City or other areas without using cars,” he said. “Also, the people who don’t live in Vineyard can come work here without having to live in Vineyard. So we will eventually be able to attract a broader workforce.”

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