November 20, 2025
Shaping Utah’s Transportation Future
How infrastructure investments and collaborative planning are driving connectivity and innovation across the state.
Reflections from the 2025 Utah Transportation Conference by Brian Dagsland, Deputy Project Manager, Stacy Witbeck
Utah’s leaders converged at the 2025 Utah Transportation Conference with a unified message: mobility is central to the state’s growth.
Governor Spencer Cox called the current state of transportation a “feast of construction”, emphasizing bold infrastructure investments designed to serve not just today’s residents but future generations. He asked, “What trees are we planting for the future, and will they provide shade and opportunity?” For us in the field, that question resonates, guiding every decision on every project.
Utah remains the fastest-growing state in the nation. Growth brings challenges, but stagnation is far worse. As the Governor noted, “You do not get to choose growth or no growth.” The real choice lies in whether Utah invests ahead of demand to keep quality of life high.
Utah has long been at the forefront, building and expanding highways and transit system ahead of congestion and population growth. Speaker Mike Schultz anchored the discussion in reality: “Utah cannot grow without transit.” He added, “We have continued to expand our transit system. Greater access to transit is a prerequisite for expanding housing options, reducing congestion, and distributing opportunity to rural communities.”
Jay M. Fox, Executive Director of the Utah Transit Authority (UTA), reemphasized to the thousand attendees, “The more track we have, the more we can do.” And our work at Stacy Witbeck aligns with that vision.
With the Wasatch Front as the ninth most urbanized region in the country, the challenge now is moving people efficiently beyond the urban corridors. Schultz noted that the state “has no choice” but to accelerate FrontRunner improvements, including double-tracking, increased speeds, and more direct service patterns. Rail expansion remains a strategic requirement.
We continue to advance work for FrontRunner, UTA’s commuter rail system, with the goal to add capacity at key choke points, improve reliability, and increase service. Once completed, we will have added 29 additional miles of double track across 11 geographical segments, a new commuter station, and a Park & Ride facility to serve the growing population and Utah’s largest new development, The Point, as part of the Point of the Mountain State Land Authority (POMSLA) master plan.
“Only 25 percent of the line is double tracked today. Even though only 50 percent of the line will be double tracked once the project is completed, more trains will be added to increase frequency during peak hours and reduce headways. This will hopefully attract people to transit and keep them on transit,” said Janelle Robertson, project manager at the UTA.
The state’s infrastructure investment leadership recognizes that Utah cannot construct enough highways to serve a doubled population. Governor Cox reinforced that Utah “has to spend the money and invest in infrastructure for quality of life to remain at a high.” Transit must match or exceed roadway performance, and infrastructure investment must extend beyond roads to the utilities that unlock responsible land development.
President Adams stressed that Utah’s strong economic performance is inseparable from an industry that “makes stuff happen and gets it done.” And we agree—we are taking that commentary back to the field, back to our crews, and back to the communities where we live.
That’s our commitment, and that’s the work ahead.
As leaders said, “we’re going to do this together, and we’re not done”—and we’re proud to be part of the team preparing to make that a reality.
