Diverse Infrastructure and Conservation Efforts Highlight Utah Water Resources

Recent projects highlight Utah’s push to better utilize water as experts in water resources share in cautious optimism.
By Taylor Larsen

So far in 2023, Utah’s water situation has been auspicious. It has been a wet season not seen in the state in well over a decade.

It has those involved in water infrastructure—from water conservancy districts and contractors and engineers to wastewater treatment engineers—excited about the possibilities in Utah to reverse the recent trends in water use. 

As water resource administrators keep a steady rhythm on an important note—water conservation—three projects from around the state highlight decades of effort to improve water infrastructure.

Rebuilding Old Tech

One of the recent projects is the Strawberry Water Users Association (SWUA) Forebay Structure rehabilitation and reconstruction of the previous 100-year-old forebay structure.

According to water engineering experts and project designers at Franson Civil Engineers, its functionality and footprint will be nearly identical while still improving technology and processes.

As Eric Franson, President of Franson Civil Engineers explained, “The structure was working, so we weren’t reinventing the wheel.” 

But you can make the (water) wheel better.

After completing the design, water was pulled out of the canal in the fall of 2022, allowing construction teams access to build the new structure. But construction brought some unique, weather-related challenges. The project’s restrictions limited work strictly to winter months. Bone-chilling winds whipped the WW Clyde construction team as they pumped massive amounts of necessary concrete.

Water from Strawberry Reservoir will pass through the new, more efficient forebay structure to drop off some of its sediment before reaching the hydropower plant turbines and the water’s ultimate destination: Spanish Fork River, serving water shareholders across Utah Valley.

After installing screening components for sediment removal, construction teams installed digital infrastructure like improved SCADA components to improve remote operability.

So far, Franson said that sediment removal capabilities have improved, resulting in cleaner water for both the hydropower turbines and irrigation and more efficient use of the valuable resource.

SWUA Forebay Structure

Owner: Strawberry Water Users Association

Designer: Franson Civil Engineers

General Contractor: WW Clyde

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Out with Old, In with the New


Improving the wheel is one thing, but the new Logan Valley Regional Wastewater Treatment Facility is akin to switching a handcart out for a Cadillac.


Lance Ota, Assistant Project Manager for MHW Contractors, said the new facility replaced the work of approximately 500 acres of open-air lagoons, ponds used to sink wastewater solids. However, the lagoons did not remove nitrogen and phosphorus and would require a treatment facility for the city to meet more stringent EPA laws to protect fish and other aquatic life.


The CMGC delivery method from MHW Contractors brought construction costs down to the campus with value engineering and scope reduction bringing about exactly what Logan City needed. 


One value engineering success came from Malcolm Drilling utilizing auger cast piles instead of steel-driven piles. This, Ota said, saved several million dollars on the project and allowed it to come in at $130 million, millions below the initially planned budget.


MWH Constructors divided the project into four scopes over the three-year construction timeline. Ota explained that 30 contracts were drawn up with different, local participants in mind to complete construction—foundations, masonry, building finishes, equipment, process piping, SCADA systems, and a healthy serving of concrete.


Ralph L. Wadsworth (RLW) Construction was heavily involved in all four scopes as the concrete contractor. RLW representatives said that the intricate nature of water infrastructure construction required smaller, more precise pours for the non-standard shapes the project required. Careful coordination between MHW Constructors, RLW Construction, concrete supplier LeGrand Concrete, and reinforcing suppliers and installers at Champion Fabrication and KG Steel made for a great team that poured and formed 24,000 CY of concrete.


Project completion on the greenfield site came out ahead of schedule to allow the owner to train an entirely new staff to run the facility. What was once a one-man operation has turned into a staff of 15 to better sample, test, and treat the 12-15 MG of wastewater influent from the Logan Valley before effluent cycles back into Cutler Reservoir.

Logan Regional Wastewater Treatment Facility

Owner: Logan City 

Designer: Carollo Engineers

General Contractor: MWH Constructors

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Closing the Loop


Traveling south, Central Valley Water Reclamation Facility (CVWRF) in South Salt Lake has improved its capabilities to manage new EPA guidelines with the 3 Water (3W) Improvement project. The newest building not only helps bring the facility to code but allows the facility to utilize reclaimed water for campus operations, according to Bill Crowley, Project Manager for COP Construction


Wastewater influent from CVWRF’s seven member entities passes through multiple cleaning phases before reaching the 3W Improvement systems. While the overall facility treats 50–60 million gallons of wastewater per day, this building and its systems, Crowley said, constitute the treatment processes able to remove nitrogen.


Water tables from nearby Mill Creek required lots of dewatering to make construction and future operations as safe as possible for the new building, Crowley reported. With 30,000 tons of aggregate and 3,000 CY of concrete, the full structure extends 25ft underground, with a 1-MG tank taking up much of the excavated space. 


Water that enters the 3W Improvement facility passes through one of three state-of-the-art disc filters, producing 7 MG of reclaimed water daily. Treated water then passes through the UV ray system to kill the final bacteria. “It’s like we’re running the water through a tanning bed,” said Crowley. 


As the final treatment, Crowley said sewage has been entirely removed from the water to updated EPA standards. Then, water can discharge as effluent into Mill Creek or, with this project, recirculated via the 15 turbine pumps across the CVWRF campus for cleaning, maintenance, and machine cooling purposes—creating a self-contained system on site.


During golf season, 3W Improvement produces reclaimed water for the nearby golf course, Golf the Round. Sure, the course is next door, but Crowley foresees the benefits of reclaimed water going all over the Beehive State, watering parks, schools, athletic fields, commercial development, and residential landscapes. 


After all, he said, as long as the water is clean, “Grass does not care what water it gets.”

3 Water Improvement Building

Owner: Central Valley Water Reclamation Facility

Designer: Brown and Caldwell 

General Contractor: COP Construct

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New Ways to Water


From watering turf grass to watering the fields and farms that produce our food, Crowley is certainly correct, but efficiency is still the name of the game.


Paul Monroe, General Manager for the Central Iron Conservancy District (CIWCD) saw a decline in per capita use among the around 50,000 users serviced by the CIWCD. The biggest decline, he said, has been in agricultural use.


“Biggest bang for the buck has been helping agriculture conserve water,” he said. While agriculture accounts for over 80% of overall water use statewide, CIWCD took the challenge to bring efficiency to agriculture. The district incentivized a switch from standard center pivot sprinklers to  “LEPA” or Low-Energy Precision Application distribution bubbles to spray water closer to the ground and into the crop canopy.


“Drops aren’t missing out [on the crops] and blowing out to another county,” he said.


After converting 2,000 acres and saving 250-300 MG of water, Monroe is looking forward to converting another 8,000 acres in center pivots to the more efficient system. 


“We’re still in a rural area with lots of agricultural heritage,” Monroe said, “and we’re trying to help farmers get over the edge and implement [these systems].”


Improving yields and using less water—this is the beginning of a huge success for the area in and around Cedar City, with Monroe reporting that CIWCD stands to conserve around 1.5 billion gallons of water per year if the remaining acreage adopts these improved watering methods.


Residential Shift


Down the road in Washington County, Zach Renstrom said it has been a phenomenal year.


“We couldn’t have asked for better,” he said of the long, steady storms that have showered rain on the Beehive State.


And that’s just the weather.


As General Manager for the Washington County Water Conservancy District (WCWCD), Renstrom and his team witnessed a strong push from their community of 180,000 to fully engage in conservation over the last year. He reported a significant decline in overall municipal water use—200 million gallons less than the previous year. 


“People here care about water conservation,” he said. “They want to be good stewards."


One recent push, he said, came from the homebuilding community. Recent restrictions—the most stringent in Utah—prohibit non-functional turf in new commercial, institutional, and industrial builds. Residential lots are restricted to turf covering a maximum of 8% of the overall lot size and a cap of total turf on larger lots.


Yet homebuilders jumped aboard. How? The enticing color of green.


Developers could conserve their dollars via decreased impact fees for projects and residences. But that decrease resulted from a change from much more efficient development, with the new level of service decreasing from 0.89 acre-feet of new residential construction to 0.59 acre-feet in 2022. The cost decrease per connection decreased from what would have been $21,209 to a WCWCD board-approved $13,500 per equivalent residential connection.


But they cautioned that this has been a long, repeated process to bring out such efforts from the development community and water customers.


“These processes haven’t happened overnight,” he said of countless meetings and countless years it takes to see noticeable results—there’s no magic button to get residents and businesses on board with conservation. “This is something that you can’t just propose or do immediately. It is a multi-year process educating multiple people who are interested in conservation.”


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Many Washington County developers and residents have ditched turf for more natural landscapes (photo courtesy Washington County Water Conservancy District), amounting to 200 MG less water used than last year with 5% more people living in the area.

Where is Water Trending?


Sure, those interviewed for this story are a little biased, but all said that water in Utah is looking up.


Franson, the civil engineer, cautioned against pinpointing just one area to tackle. Instead, finding the low-hanging fruit of efficiencies within each industry—landscaping, fixtures, farming equipment and practices—will move the conservation needle.

 

“We can make gains in every aspect and come up with ways to help everyone instead of creating a hierarchy,” he said. Holistically prioritizing what is most needed will help us better navigate the process.


He advocated for understanding the full cost and value of water. While it might bring out the pitchforks at city meetings across the Beehive State, moving forward will help citizens fully grasp the seriousness of the state’s water woes.


Crowley with COP Construction said Utah is starting to recognize the gravity of the situation, but where nearby states like Arizona and Colorado are leading the way in stretching all water as far as possible, Utah sits behind. State leaders have yet to pass laws to utilize reclaimed water on a large scale.


Monroe in Iron County said, “We’ve gotta buckle down and focus for an uncertain future.” Along with creating better partnerships between users and water suppliers, Monroe said the A/E/C community needs to be involved in making water development decisions—especially with how infrastructure takes years, even decades, to go from initial idea to finished construction. 


Case in point: his district’s plan to develop water for the district via the Pine Valley Water Supply Project (PVWSP). While initial planning began in 2006, Monroe reported that construction for the PVWSP will begin, at its earliest, in 2028. 


Amidst that caution, Renstrom in Washington County felt like both his area and the state as a whole are trending in the right direction, even if it has taken some refocusing.


“Historically, we’ve understood the importance of water,” he said of the monumental undertakings to organize water resources in the 19th and 20th centuries. “We got complacent, but we’re waking up.”


Water-related bills in the legislature, public meetings surrounding water resources, and even joining with neighbors to say, “How about the drought?”


“It’s a great discussion we are having right now,” said Zach. These discussions must continue, at every level, especially encouraging elected officials and residents to prioritize water as drought issues are sure to resurface.


The real attention, he said, will come from making a difference financially—incentives, grants, budgets, or, as Franson mentioned earlier, realizing the true cost of water and allocating resources accordingly. “We have to spend the money to make these decisions,” said Renstrom.


Hard decisions are waiting to be made, but the time to act is quickly drying up.

Like a Phoenix Rising

By Bradley Fullmer • November 15, 2025
Residents have access to a wealth of modern, high-class amenities: Check out this open-air rooftop patio with tasteful lighting, pool, and spacious hot tub—it’s party time! (all photos courtesy Kier Construction)

Mission In Progress

By LADD MARSHALL • November 15, 2025
Steve Green is out in McCornick, Utah. Where is that? And what’s near McCornick? “Nothing,” joked Green, the Sr. Vice President for Wheeler Machinery Co. While he may be far from even the smallest of small towns, with Holden and its 492 residents 13 miles away, he’s close to the site of a major development in data center technology. Isolated on the western edge of the Sevier Desert, the Joule Data Center will also be isolated from the grid—by design. Operation Gigawatt Rolls On Green is one of many energy and power professionals hoping to double Utah’s power generation capacity by 2034 as a part of Operation Gigawatt, an initiative launched by Utah Governor Spencer Cox in October 2024. Utah has long been an economic growth leader; Operation Gigawatt aims to make Utah a power player in energy development by increasing transmission capacity, increasing energy production, strengthening policy, and investing in energy innovation. While Governor Cox’s Operation Gigawatt moves forward statewide, out in McCornick, Green said, “We’re doing operation gigawatt and a half off grid.” The Joule Data Center project team will deliver “In-situ power generation”—power not connected to any electrical distribution or transmission system. It starts with Caterpillar G3520K reciprocating generator sets that produce 1.5 gigawatts of electricity. Waste heat and exhaust from the generators then move through an absorption chiller system as part of the overall systems combined cooling, heat, and power (CCHP) solution, providing much of the water required to cool the data center servers. Beyond the electric power to be generated for the Joule project, there will be 1.5 gigawatts of thermal energy and 1.1 gigawatts of available battery storage to meet the data center's peak electricity needs. Added Green, “And we’re not taxing the local utility grid.” Isolated or Community Power? The massive power capabilities delivered there are impressive, but they reveal a troubling trend in how Utah will double its power generation capabilities. Will it be from well-funded companies looking to power data centers and AI technology separate from the grid? Or will Utah fulfill the mission of Operation Gigawatt by creating power solutions accessible to all? According to Troy Thompson, Chief Operations Officer for Big-D Companies, power generation is about more than supplying data centers. “In my mind, how do we build a billion-dollar hospital downtown that needs ten megawatts of power?” he said, referencing Intermountain Health’s future downtown Salt Lake campus, “let alone the data centers, and manufacturers who we are hoping that will come here?” Ten megawatts of power may pale in comparison to what data centers require, but it is one of many projects seeking regulatory approval to move forward. The Utah Inland Port Authority, the Economic Development Corporation of Utah, and others continue to drive projects and jobs into Utah—data centers, too. But Thompson said he has heard from many potential clients who are hesitant to bring their energy-intensive projects to the state without firm guarantees of available power. Operation Gigawatt and state leaders have embraced an "all of the above" approach to energy sources, extending the design lifespans of coal plants, embracing new technologies and power sources, and developing new power-generating capabilities. While the industry is willing, the operating environment needs rewiring to meet state goals. Changing for 21st Century Needs “With as hot as the Utah market is,” began Eric Haslem, “there are too many obstacles for us to overcome.” The market may be ready to ramp up production, said Haslem, Chief Operating Officer for Vernal-based utility and heavy civil contractors BHI, “But the current system can’t handle it. We have this massive web of transmission and distribution infrastructure that was not designed or built for the power demands of the 21st century.” “In 1970, they didn’t know what a smartphone was,” Haslem said, “let alone AI.” Transmission projects have been developed. Rocky Mountain Power/PacifiCorp’s Energy Gateway South transmission line—a 416-mile, high-voltage 500-kilovolt transmission line that runs from Mona to Medicine Bow, Wyoming—certainly helped when it went live in 2024. Still, it's just one project amidst a plethora of needs. Haslem stated that Utah's growth over the last 10 years meant a large majority of the transmission line's capacity was accounted for when it went live. .

One-Stop Shop

By Bradley Fullmer • November 15, 2025
And the King shall answer and say unto them, "Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me."—KJV Matthew 25:40 From a social and community impact standpoint, few projects match the value to disabled and special needs individuals as the new Utah State Development Center (USDC) Comprehensive Therapies Building in American Fork. The $36 million, 65,000-SF facility was designed as a "one-stop shop," said Joe Jacoby, President of Salt Lake-based Jacoby Architects, whose team led the project’s design. It consolidates and modernizes myriad services under one roof, including physical therapy, occupational therapy, recreational therapy, speech, language, and hearing resources, and behavioral health resources. In addition, the new building offers full-service medical and dental clinics, an indoor therapy pool, an Autism treatment wing, and workshops for life skills and vocational training—all geared to helping people live independent, authentic lives, while striving to reach their full potential. "This building was very much about accessibility," Jacoby said, "and putting in many different types of resources for these residents—all in one building." Jacoby's firm has significant recent experience in projects that combine education and healthcare for people with special needs. The firm's design of the Sorenson Legacy Foundation Center for Clinical Excellence in Utah State University's College of Education and Human Services earned UC+D's 2016 Most Outstanding K-12 Project. Two years later, the firm earned another UC+D award for the C. Mark Openshaw Education Center for the Utah Schools for the Deaf and the Blind, a project similar to this one in that it contains an array of services, including education and therapy for varying levels of sensory, behavioral, physical, and cognitive abilities. "We've been working on different [design] aspects for many years, starting with a deaf preschool, which led to working with the Utah Schools for the Deaf and the Blind," said Jacoby. "With that came many other sub-specialties, like therapy for behavioral issues, cognitive issues, development disabilities, and even speech, language and hearing clinics. It helps people with a variety of disabilities and serves an underserved population of people."

Built Different

By Taylor Larsen • November 15, 2025
On a fall tour of Utah State University's (USU) Carolyn & Kem Gardner Learning & Leadership Building (Gardner Building), students and faculty are hard at work on a late Tuesday afternoon. Getting here, where USU's business school students could thrive, was a long time coming. The University commissioned the Gardner Building to meet a new mission for the school outside the traditional knowledge acquisition and transfer for which USU has excelled since its founding in 1888: Giving students a differentiated experience they cannot get anywhere else. Purpose Revealed Frank Caliendo, Senior Associate Dean of the Huntsman School of Business, said that the new building is the third and final piece of the business complex, "a realization of the longtime vision of Dean Douglas Anderson, the driving force behind the school's transformation, to meet the needs of students for generations to come." Caliendo, a longtime Aggie (USU BS, '98; PhD, '03), said that, even after the opening of the George S. Eccles Business Building and its faculty offices and classrooms in 1970, growth in business courses eventually outpaced the school's capacity. Jon M. Huntsman Hall's 2016 opening broke the campus bottleneck, with classrooms and other spaces dedicated to business school participants. "But we still needed space for our centers and experiential learning programs," Caliendo said, of the importance of collaborative spaces and differentiated experience for the five programs (see page XX) that would call the Gardner Building home. The design intent for this final piece wasn't a re-creation of Huntsman Hall, Caliendo said of the initial message to MHTN Architects, "But it does need to rhyme with Huntsman Hall." Working within a Busy Environment The first order of business was siting the building just east of the other two business school structures. Stan Burke, Project Manager for Jacobsen Construction, said the Gardner Building was part of a trio of projects that included Ridge Point Hall and a parking garage—three Jacobsen-led projects that utilized the same construction corridor as construction commenced from "An active campus is difficult enough," said Burke of the challenges of simultaneous construction, which required constant coordination amongst the three teams, made a tad easier as they shared a job trailer. "We had to stay cognizant of the school's activities and coordinate with them so that everyone was aware of what we were doing." Coordination went from important to critical, with the three teams meeting daily to discuss coordination and scheduling material and equipment deliveries in 15-minute intervals as the respective construction teams worked on each of the three structures.

The Long and Winding Road

By Bradley Fullmer • November 15, 2025
Warren and Jennie Lloyd (above) have built Salt Lake-based Lloyd Architects into a well-rounded, versatile firm capable of excelling in both the commercial and custom residential markets, as evidenced by projects such as Snuck Farm in Pleasant Grove (main photo) and this cozy private Powder Mountain based cabin in Eden (below ).

Power Player

By Bradley Fullmer • November 15, 2025
The last five years have been a whirlwind for the Larry H. Miller Company (LHM), with the organization selling the majority of its beloved Utah Jazz franchise in October 2020 for a reported $1.66 billion, followed by the sale of its auto dealership empire of more than 70 properties for a reported $3.2 billion a year later. The influx of nearly $5 billion was parlayed into several jaw-dropping real estate and other corporate purchases, including: —1,300 undeveloped acres within the massive 4,100-acre Daybreak development in South Jordan in April 2021. —Advanced Health Care Corp. in January 2021, a transitional health care provider with operations in eight states (primarily in the west) and 3,500 employees. —The purchase of the majority stake in Swig, a leader in the flavored soda craze, in May 2023. — Partnering with Utah Trust Lands Administration to develop 1,200 acres in Saratoga Springs. — The acquisition of over 1,000 acres near Park City and Hideout will include multi-family units, housing, restaurants, and retail. —100+ acre mixed-use development in an area along North Temple being dubbed “The Power District”; the future home of not only Rocky Mountain Power’s new corporate campus but potentially a ballpark for a future Major League Baseball expansion team. —A reported $600 million acquisition of controlling interest in MLS team Real Salt Lake and NWSL team Utah Royals, along with associated infrastructure, including America First Field and Zions Bank Training Center. —The development of Downtown Daybreak, a 200-acre parcel that this year saw its 30-acre Phase I debut with the completion of the Salt Lake Bees' new 8,000 capacity stadium—dubbed The Ballpark at America First Square—in April, followed by a new Megaplex cinema entertainment center in July with luxury theatres, bowling, games and a scratch-made kitchen in addition to an open air plaza. A seven-story, 190-unit multi-family development is currently under construction and rising along the right field bleachers, with views that will look down into the ballpark upon completion next year. And LHM is just getting started, said Brad Holmes, President of Larry H. Miller Real Estate since 2018, calling Downtown Daybreak a "new urban center that is central to where the majority of growth is occurring" and combines a "full spectrum of business and year-round entertainment, culture and connectivity, as well as a wide range of housing options." When LHM executives first conceived of a new home for the Salt Lake Bees, Holmes said they went on a "ballpark tour" of MLB and minor league stadiums, and "really fell in love with a ballpark" in Durham, North Carolina—home of the Durham Bulls—which had buildings that framed in the stadium. So, The Ballpark at America First Square has the multi-family project underway in right field, with a proposed hotel slated to begin next year in left field. "In another two seasons, you'll have this urban setting for the ballpark that frames the mountain views. [The design is] really intentional, and I think it will bring a finished edge to Downtown Daybreak," said Holmes. "It was a process trying to figure out the best location, site plan, traffic, but it's in a great spot. The goal for us was to make it feel like it fit in with the community, almost like having a baseball stadium inside of a park, with an open corridor that connects to a plaza."  Holmes said the seemingly small 8,000-capacity stadium (about half the capacity of the Bees former home at Smith’s Ballpark) aligns with national trends. "It's better to play in front of a sold-out crowd than in a half-empty stadium. Some new MLB stadiums are at 30,000 [capacity]. The trend is smaller, more intimate venues with closer views of the field."

Hogan Construction 80th Anniversary

By Taylor Larsen • November 15, 2025
Much has changed about Hogan & Associates Construction since the company's inception 80 years ago. The name may be the most obvious example, the size of the company may be another giveaway, and the difference in markets served might require a double take if the founders could see the company today. But what hasn't changed is the firm's desire to build communities. It has regularly built important, community-focused projects with a similar purpose since the company came to life in 1945.

(De)signed, Sealed, Delivered

By Taylor Larsen • November 15, 2025
Imagine this: A company has just begun a meeting with the intent of moving forward with a major investment. One party knows something that will help minimize the investment's risk. Should that party tell everyone, it will save money, time, and everyone involved from future headaches. So when should that party spill the beans? At the beginning of the meeting At the end of the meeting At the right time during the meeting Never Bradley Crocker, Director of Preconstruction for Mollerup Glass, has seen how answering this question correctly—and choosing “A”—brings about successful and profitable investment in commercial construction. “I think that [project teams] need to bring in subcontractors early to help guide budgets in general,” said Crocker, detailing how every trade can bring a similar level of expertise to architects and owners by being involved from the beginning of the “meeting”, while the project is in design. Why? “We can vet cost versus performance and find the best value for the performance, which is essential as meeting or beating the budgets gets the project to construction on time,” said Ben Hiatt, Chief Estimator for Steel Encounters. After all, he said, “Nothing moves if budgets are not met.” Design-assist is a positive step forward, where subcontractors assist in matching design intent with a deep understanding of building envelopes to ensure glazing, roofing, walls, and fenestrations perform at their highest level. Glenn Rainey, Salt Lake City Branch Manager, and Larry Luque, Senior Estimator and Business Developer for Flynn Companies, each said efforts in design-assist fulfill what owners and architects want: buildings that meet the design intent and perform at their highest level for as long as possible. It’s not just architects who benefit from that early involvement. “More GCs realize they need us right up front,” said Luque. With teams whose combined experience totals thousands of hours, building envelope contractors stay up to date on changing codes, materials, and specifications, which is highly beneficial to the project. Their close involvement with vendors can help ensure a variety of solutions that meet each job’s needs and help optimize building envelope performance. Consultant Involvement Other parties are lending their expertise. Brandt Strong said building envelope quality has increased with the arrival of more building envelope consultants in Utah and a greater dedication to the building envelope in general. “We had a time where we could say ‘This is a Vegas project, and we have to have the belt and suspenders,’” said Strong, Director of Operations for Mollerup Glass. On Utah projects, the building envelope used to be an afterthought. But it’s changed for the better over the years. “The Utah teams are as sophisticated as anywhere else.” While the markups on shop drawings can draw some ire, both mentioned how working with consultants has led to better, more efficient projects, potentially reducing the need for future repairs by inspecting every material and transition on the building envelope. Said Crocker, “We cannot discredit the envelope consultants’ role in making us, and the industry as a whole, perform at a higher level.” Hiatt credited each party overseeing the building envelope scope for learning and adapting to create a better building environment, specifically in understanding seismic drift and its relationship to glazing, as well as thermal performance and continuity. Improvements to air-barrier coordination and tie-ins to stop water and air leaks are helping buildings operate at peak efficiency. “The architects, general contractors, consultants, and trades have improved their knowledge over the years,” said Hiatt. “Design and execution of façades are better coordinated and executed.”

Taylor Electric Thriving at 50

By Bradley Fullmer • November 15, 2025
Taylor Electric proved its mettle on the challenging Salt Lake International Airport, Southeast Concourse project, with their portion of work concluding in October 2023. (all photos courtesy Taylor Electric)

Hungry and Ready

By Bradley Fullmer and Taylor Larsen • November 15, 2025
By Bradley Fullmer It's been a whirlwind 18 months for Adam Del Toro and Nick Pexton, who co-founded Fountain Green-based Reliance Engineering Services in May 2024, a company specializing in full-service telecommunications engineering, including design, project management, permitting, and funding and grant applications. Two years ago, Del Toro was more than a decade into his career as a Research & Development Supervisor for natural gas giant Dominion Energy, while Pexton was working for Nephi-based Rocky Mountain West Telcom (RMWT) as a Sr. Director of Business Development, with just over four years at the company. The two had met a couple of years earlier while collaborating on a potential fiber optic network project in Mona that never happened. Neither was particularly content with their respective positions, so when Del Toro got a random call from Pexton in March 2024, the timing could not have been better. "I was planning on leaving the natural gas industry and start my own firm [...] Nick happened to call the day I was putting in my two weeks [at Dominion],” said Del Toro, 39. "It definitely felt like Providence was helping us." "Somebody was looking after us, because the timing was unbelievable," added Pexton, 35. "It's crazy how things lined up." Del Toro is a native of St. George and earned a Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering from Utah State University in 2011. After 2.5 years as a USU Graduate Research Assistant, he joined Dominion Energy in January 2013, where he designed major natural gas systems and structures. Del Toro also earned a Master of Clinical Mental Health Counseling from the University of the Cumberlands (Williamsburg, Kentucky) in 2023, and moonlights as a counselor at The Center for Hope in Springville, where he helps clients address life challenges both personally and professionally. Pexton is a native of Nephi and studied at Utah Valley University from 2008 to 2010, and earned the Certified Telecommunications Network Specialist designation from Teracom Training Institute (2013-2014). Pexton joined Nephi-based Mid-State Consultants, a telecommunications engineering firm, in March 2011 and spent more than nine years there. He joined RMWT in June 2020, gaining experience in project management and operations. After that fortuitous phone call from Pexton to Del Toro, the pair met four times from March to May to "make sure we were aligned on what the company would look like," Pexton said. "It was a pretty quick process," added Del Toro. "We got talking about goals, how to build a general company vision. I trusted Nick's background and experience, and his character, as well. It was a big risk, but I'm a sink-or-swim guy. If those are my options, I'm going to swim!" Since teaming up, the pair have been aggressive regarding company growth, having exploded from just the two of them to 30 employees, with revenues expected to more than quintuple from $560,000 in 2024 to nearly $3 million by the end of this year. Both expect the telecommunication market to be a fruitful, busy market given the need for fiber optics to rural America, in addition to the "Internet for All" initiative in May 2022 that was part of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration's (NTIA) implementation of the infrastructure law that allocated $65 billion to improve high-speed Internet access. Utah, specifically, received $330 million, with the goal of reaching some 40,000 unserved homes and businesses. The firm's location in Sanpete County puts them in the center of the state geographically, and they're committed to working with communities of all sizes to improve their internet capacity. In addition to Utah, Reliance is working in Michigan and Oklahoma, and Del Toro and Pexton expect to land significant future work throughout the Midwest. They want to grow intentionally while ensuring a diversity of revenue streams. "We set some early goals, and we've been able to do really well—we're on track to beat our goals," said Del Toro, crediting the many employees who have joined the firm. "Those individuals took great risks coming on board. We anticipate we'll be even larger next year with the work coming down the pipeline." "Our outlook has been wise," said Pexton. "We've taken into consideration diversification into other sectors—that's a key element. Adam has experience in the natural gas industry, and we want to further our diversification and get into the power side of the industry." Major clients include the federal government (USDA), utility companies, and municipalities, with a focus on rural communities. "We love Sanpete County," said Del Toro. "We value helping the communities we live and work in and providing services that help build up the community and hopefully help the residents." "We depend on repeat work from 18 major clients, and continuously getting work from them," said Pexton. "The minute we stop doing a good job, they can go someplace else. As long as we do a good job, we'll keep getting work." The pair expect Reliance to maintain its explosive growth, perhaps even doubling its employee total in another 12 months. "Next year's [revenue] goal is $4.8 million," said Pexton. "We have confidence in what our workload will be like. We are scaling quite dramatically and want to grow at a healthy pace, where we're not stringing ourselves out too thin. We're in a good position right now."