Grades Remain Steady, One of Three States with ASCE’s Highest State Infrastructure Grade
SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Section of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) released the 2025 Report Card for Utah’s Infrastructure today, assigning 12 categories of infrastructure a cumulative grade of ‘C+’, which is unchanged from the last report card in 2020. Utah is one of only three states with a ‘C+’ grade, the highest grade ASCE has ever assigned to a state’s infrastructure. Only two other states, Georgia and Wisconsin, currently have ‘C+’ infrastructure grades. Utah’s grade is also one step higher than the national infrastructure grade of ‘C’ in the 2025 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure, which was just released in March.
Utah’s aviation infrastructure was the only category to see a grade increase, while three categories (bridges, stormwater, and transit) saw grade decreases. The remaining eight categories maintained the same grade as the 2020 report card.
The grade for each category is below:
Grade Categories
B+ Roads
B Bridges
B- Drinking Water, Solid Waste, Transit
C+ Aviation, Dams, Hazardous Waste
C Stormwater, Wastewater
D+ Canals
D- Levees
“Utah is one of the fastest-growing states in the country, and state leaders have taken steps to ensure the reliability of infrastructure systems as more people move here to enjoy Utah’s thriving communities, amazing outdoors, and high quality of life,” said Craig Friant, PE, chair, the 2025 Report Card for Utah’s Infrastructure. “However, a growing population and more frequent droughts also mean our water supply faces ongoing threats. While Utahns have drastically reduced their water usage, there are ongoing challenges, and leaders need to be proactive with solutions.”
The investments in infrastructure that Utah leaders have prioritized have helped the state earn high grades for roads and bridges. Roads received a ‘B+’ grade, which is significantly higher than the national ‘D+’. In 2023, state lawmakers approved the largest investment ever in Utah’s transportation funding, committing to more than $14 billion in upgrades and new construction over the next six years to help build or expand roads and highways in all parts of the state, but especially in areas seeing increased traffic because of Utah’s rapid population growth. Roughly 95 percent of roads in the state are in good or fair condition, and the state’s transportation asset management plan has prioritized proactive maintenance on the state’s most-traveled highways.
Utah’s bridges saw a one-step grade decrease to a ‘B’ in the 2025 report card, while higher than the national bridge grade of ‘C’ it is a sign that the data currently available indicates worsening conditions. In 2020, 38 percent of bridges in the state were in good condition, compared with 22 percent in 2024. While the state has worked diligently to prioritize preservation, rehabilitation, and replacement of bridges, rapid increases in construction costs and an aging bridge inventory mean that existing funding levels can no longer support the number of bridge projects the state has historically supported. Approximately 35 percent of bridges in Utah are more than 50 years old, which is the planned service life of a bridge. Over the last decade, the state has replaced, on average, 23 bridges per year. If the state does not accelerate bridge construction, it would take more than a century at the current pace to replace all existing bridges in Utah.
As communities across the West deal with concerns about reliable water supplies due to ongoing drought and increased demand, Utah’s drinking water grade is unchanged at a ‘B-’. Utahns are doing their part to help preserve water supplies by reducing home water usage by 20 percent over the last two decades. However, existing water sources are facing additional stress due to regular drought conditions, decreased winter snowpack, and the increasing number of people and businesses in Utah. This means that the state and its water conservancy districts must find additional water sources, many of which are located far from population centers, requiring water utilities to build new pipelines and distribution systems. The Utah State Water Plan estimates that needed improvements and repairs to the state’s water infrastructure will total $38 billion between now and 2060.
Even as Utah contends with water shortages, the state’s dams, levees, and canals are also being tested by intense storms and flooding events. The grade for Utah’s dams remained a ‘C+’ on the 2025 report card. Only 52 percent of Utah’s high-hazard potential dams are in satisfactory condition. It will take approximately $450 million in funding to bring all the state’s high-hazard potential dams up to satisfactory condition. However, the state currently budgets only $3.8 million per year for high-hazard dam rehabilitation work. Utah’s levees received the lowest grade on the report card, a ‘D-’, the same grade as in 2020. These levees protect more than $13 billion worth of property and infrastructure, including densely populated communities and key facilities like Salt Lake City International Airport. Most levees in the state are more than 60 years old, and very little is known about their current condition or the details of their construction. Utah’s canals, which received a ‘D+’ grade, are also part of the state’s flood management plan. Most canals were built in the 1800s for irrigation purposes, and since many of them are privately owned, there is limited information available on their condition.
Utah’s investment in aviation infrastructure helped increase the grade to a ‘C+’, which is a one-step increase from the 2020 report card. The new terminal at Salt Lake City International Airport (SLC) has helped prepare Utah’s biggest airport for the future. In 2023, nearly 13 million people boarded planes at SLC. Upon completion in 2027, the airport will be capable of handling 34 million passengers annually.
The 2025 Report Card for Utah’s Infrastructure includes several recommendations to raise the grades:
• Planning for the future: As Utah’s population grows, the state must conduct regular, comprehensive analyses of its future infrastructure needs. This is especially critical for water resources, canals, transportation, transit, and waste management. The state must provide consistent, reliable funding to support improvements, maintenance, resiliency, and risk reduction.
• Prioritize funding for bridges: Many bridges built during Utah’s early population growth are facing the end of their service lives and are now in fair or poor condition. The state needs to increase the number of bridge replacement projects and create ongoing, dedicated funding sources to preserve, rehabilitate, or replace aging bridges.
• Focus on future water needs: Utah’s water future depends on maximizing the use of available water resources. Water systems should collaborate with State agencies and other stakeholders to ensure the Great Salt Lake is restored to healthy conditions. These efforts include strengthening Utah’s canal infrastructure through funding for transitioning from open channel to piping, while reducing losses from seepage and evaporation.
• Increase dam safety funding: By increasing funding to $10 million annually, the state would be able to rehabilitate all high-hazard dams within 50 years. An increase to $20 million per year would enable faster repairs, but it would still take 25 years to complete all required repairs.
The report card was created as a public service to inform citizens and policymakers about the infrastructure needs in Utah. Civil engineers use their expertise and school report card-style letter grades to condense complicated data into an easy-to-understand analysis of Utah’s infrastructure network. ASCE State report cards are modeled after the Report Card for America’s Infrastructure, which is released once every four years. The 2025 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure assigned America’s infrastructure a ‘C’ grade, the highest national grade in the report card’s history.
The full report is available here.
About the American Society of Civil Engineers
Founded in 1852, the American Society of Civil Engineers represents more than 160,000 civil engineers worldwide and is America's oldest national engineering society. ASCE works to raise awareness of the need to maintain and modernize the nation's infrastructure using sustainable and resilient practices, advocates for increasing and optimizing investment in infrastructure, and improve engineering knowledge and competency. For more information, visit www.asce.org or www.infrastructurereportcard.org and follow us on Twitter, @ASCETweets and @ASCEGovRel.