“We didn’t have to deal with traffic other than where we crossed streets, and because we were building in an old rail corridor, there were almost no utilities to deal with,” says Memmott. He said because the S-Line crosses a state road (S.R. 89, or State Street) and passes through two municipalities, Salt Lake and South Salt Lake City, coordinating information and scheduling was the greatest challenge.

Salt Lake City Councilman Soren Simonsen, an architect and urban planner by trade and an early proponent of the streetcar concept, notes that many of the neighborhoods the S-Line traverses were built around access to the city’s original streetcar lines, and the city was already seeing new development and growth related to the line.

Simonsen says he felt the S-Line was meeting the needs of the community, which were spelled out in meetings with residents and city officials in 2006.

“This was originally considered for a light rail extension but the residents said they wanted something different. Something lower speed that had walking and biking paths, that would connect to other transit options and that had numerous stops for residents to access. I think we’ve accomplished those goals,” Simonsen says.

S-Line Project Team

Owner: Utah Transit Authority

Design Engineering: HDR

Construction/engineering: Stacy and Witbeck