COTTONWOOD HEIGHTS, Utah — Rocky Mountain Power will be pausing its single-lane closures in Big Cottonwood Canyon just for the weekend because of the upcoming winter storm.
RMP began its wildfire mitigation project in May of this year, replacing overhead power lines with underground ones. The goal was to complete the project by the end of October, company spokeswoman Jona Whitesides said.
“We're kind of racing against time," he said. "So if we can't meet that deadline, then it'll stop at a certain point and we will have to pick back up in the spring.”
RMP hopes to resume work next week and finish the project before winter really settles in.
“It depends upon, really, the weather," Whitesides said. "So snowfall, if we start to get into that winter where we are having a lot of snowfall, and then temperature-wise, so once we start to get down to where we have consistent freezing temperatures over a period of time, we can no longer lay asphalt."
One more week of fall could make all the difference. While many Utahns are sad to say goodbye to autumn, others are impatiently waiting for winter.
