Sundance construction shutdown takes effect along Main Street

A crane towers above lower Main Street on Friday morning, evidence of a construction boom along the street. City Hall ordered a construction shutdown on Main Street during much of the Sundance Film Festival in an effort to ensure the festival runs smoothly. Jay Hamburger/Park Record

The stars of the Sundance Film Festival will not be the contractors.

And the festival's soundtrack will not include construction workers hammering away along Main Street.

City Hall, in what was an aggressive move, ordered a shutdown of construction projects along Main Street not related to the festival itself. There is a series of major private sector projects on or just off Main Street that drew scrutiny late in 2013, as it became apparent that the work, taken together, was leaving Main Street a less attractive place to visit.

As Sundance neared, Park City officials took the dramatic step of ordering the shutdown along Main Street. Some of the project sites are unmistakable, but there will not be work at them for most of Sundance.

The first period involved in the City Hall-ordered shutdown took effect at noon on Thursday and lasts until 7 a.m. on Tuesday. The Thursday-to-Tuesday schedule covers the normally jammed opening weekend of Sundance. The shutdown will take effect again from noon on Jan. 24 until 7 a.m. on Jan. 27, encompassing the second weekend of Sundance, which is also normally busy.

Chad Root, the chief building official at City Hall, said the shutdown involves Swede Alley, the east side of upper Park Avenue and Heber Avenue in addition to Main Street itself. He said there are fewer than 10 projects along Main Street that are impacted. The keys ones are:

A few projects involving remodels of the interior are also impacted by the shutdown, he said.

One crane, at the site of the 692 Main St. project, will be left standing along Main Street during Sundance. Another one, which stood close to the Main Street-Heber Avenue intersection for the Silver Queen Hotel building project, was taken down in recent weeks. It will return periodically as the work continues.

Root holds the power to shut down other construction sites outside of the Main Street core if it is found that they are interfering with the operations of Sundance.

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Sundance construction shutdown takes effect along Main Street