A joint venture team is set to begin work on modernizing a canal built in 1916 in Utah into a modern pressurized water conveyance system, according to a press release.

The Central Utah Water Conservancy District has selected a joint venture of Dallas-based Jacobs and Draper, Utah-based Bowen Collins & Associates to provide engineering services for the proposed Strawberry Highline modernization project, a key water infrastructure effort in the state.

The future project, which is estimated to cost about $750 million to build, is still pending final approval, according to the Aug. 11 press release. It will upgrade the Strawberry Highline Canal by constructing new pipelines and related facilities, such as a new pump station.

The U.S. Department of the Interior allocated $100 million in federal funding for the project earlier this year. According to a May 2026 environmental assessment document, assuming "environmental compliance and other legal requirements are successfully completed," construction on the Strawberry Highline pipeline project could begin as early as 2027, with operations potentially starting in 2032.

Plans call for replacing the open canal with a buried pipeline and then converting the existing corridor into a regional multi-use trail. The upgrades will provide recreational amenities and improve community connectivity, according to a press release from Jacobs.

The conveyance project will ultimately serve agricultural users and urban communities in southern Utah and eastern Utah County and eastern Juab County. Once completed, the new water infrastructure system will support water delivery to a population of approximately 420,000, according to Jacobs.

"Modernizing critical water infrastructure is essential to sustaining thriving communities," said Tom Meinhart, executive vice president at Jacobs, in the press release. "Given Utah's significant growth, the Strawberry Highline modernization project will enhance system performance and deliver water for agriculture, communities, and future development."

The win is the latest major water infrastructure modernization project Jacobs has secured in the western United States.

For example, the cities of San Jose and Santa Clara in California selected the firm earlier this year as the progressive design-build contractor for a $200 million modernization of the second-largest advanced wastewater treatment facility in the western United States.

Elsewhere in California, Los Angeles Sanitation and the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power have also selected Jacobs as the progressive design-build contractor for the $500 million Donald C. Tillman Advanced Water Purification Facility.