PROJECTS
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CASE STUDY: FULL FOOTPRINT FIBER DESIGN FOR A LEGACY CITY
Primary Client: UTOPIA Fiber
Municipal Partner: Bountiful City / Bountiful Fiber
Scope: Citywide fiber-optic network engineering
Network Type: Fiber to the Home (FTTH)
Design: Underground, bored ring design with full network distribution
Timeline: 12 months engineering, with 18 months of parallel permitting and construction support
Outcome: Design/build completed 12 months ahead of schedule, 14,500 households connected
Services: Fielding, Utility Mapping, Permitting, ROW & PUE Research, Engineering Design, Construction Support, GIS-Ready Deliverables
THE CHALLENGE
Bountiful is a legacy city with tight streets, layered infrastructure, dense residential development, and decades of mismatched utility records that don’t always agree with what’s in the ground. The job was full-footprint engineering under real constraints:
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Deliver a Fiber to the Home (FTTH) bored ring design with full network distribution
Assign one dedicated fiber to every home, business and dwelling unit. No splitting, no aerial, no GPON, no microtrenching
Underground-only design requirement (city power requested the network stay off poles)
Dense, conflicting utilities with decades of patchwork documentation
High-stakes permitting across critical waterways, canals, pipes, and drainage systems, much of it buried
Deliverables needed to be permit-ready, constructible, and GIS-compatible for long-term asset management
Engineering, permitting, and construction had to move together without delays, redesign loops, or waiting on the next phase to start.
THE APPROACH
We started where most projects skip: boots on the ground. Our field crews verified routes and captured real-world conditions so the engineering matched what construction crews would face in the bore path.
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Fielded over 1,000,000 linear feet to verify routes, constraints, and constructible paths
Incorporated field-verified utility maps into the designs so crews weren’t digging into unknowns
Embedded ROW and PUE research directly into the prints so designs stayed in-bounds, approvals weren’t guesswork, and field redlines could be made with confidence
Captured household utility connection points so conduit drops landed where each property ties in, reducing field improvisation and improving the customer drop installation experience
Drove permitting with high-demand agencies including the US Department of the Interior, US Bureau of Reclamation, and Weber Basin Water Conservancy District, using engineered plan-and-profile packages that clearly justified crossings and encroachments
This wasn’t engineering on paper. It was engineering built for reviewers, inspectors, and the crews installing the network.
THE RESULT
In under 12 months, more than half the city’s fiber footprint was designed. In 18 months, the full network was designed and built, with permitting and construction support running alongside design, instead of waiting behind it.
A record-setting project that proved what clean, construction-ready engineering can do:
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Early field verification and constructible, review-ready plan sets eliminated the churn that usually drags citywide network design/build projects.
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High-scrutiny crossings and encroachments were supported by engineered plan-and-profile documentation and defensible design decisions, speeding agency approvals.
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14,500 households, and over 2,000 businesses, representing 45,000 people, were connected to the network with a dedicated fiber, addressing robust modern demand for high-speed internet.
The difference wasn’t speed for speed’s sake. It was the quality of the inputs: field-verified conditions, complete utility context, and permit-grade documentation.
Plans moved through review without the usual back-and-forth. Crews stayed working without costly stoppages. And the operator walked away with GIS-ready files that support maintenance, expansions, and long-term network visibility.
THE FEEDBACK
“This is an older city with complicated utilities, so accuracy matters. Kartta didn’t guess. They verified in the field, did the ROW and PUE homework, and delivered a design package that held up through review and construction. We moved faster without paying for it later in rework.”
Lloyd N. Cheney, P.E., P.L.S., City Engineer, Public Works Director / Bountiful City, Bountiful Fiber
“Kartta Civil possesses a strong understanding of the easement encroachment agreement process (associated with encroaching US Bureau of Reclamation easements and properties), including the relevant applications and regulatory requirements. Their approach ensures that utility companies (such as Weber Basin Water Conservancy District and USBR) are confident in the proposed designs, facilitating approval for encroachments into exclusive easements. Kartta Civil is highly responsive, communicates effectively, through design and permitting of projects."
Zeke Bardwell, Inspector / Weber Basin Water Conservancy District
FEATURED PROJECTS
WEST HAVEN CITY / NORTHERN UTAH
West Haven sits in a dense corridor of canals and rivers feeding the Weber River watershed on its way to the Great Salt Lake. This wasn’t just network design; it was permitting chess. With over 14 agencies in the mix, including the US Department of the Interior, we delivered constructible prints with permits from all 14 agencies.
GARLAND CITY / NORTHERN UTAH
Garland is the kind of rural footprint that exposes weak engineering fast: rear easements, back-of-lot poles, and a mixed aerial, underground build. We field-verified over 400 poles, validated the underground route, and engineered in parallel to deliver a permit-ready, full-city design in eight weeks.
SANTA CLARA CITY / SOUTHERN UTAH
Santa Clara, Utah is a fast-growth city where “good enough for today” turns into expensive rework tomorrow. We met with city leadership and engineered around Santa Clara’s 5- and 10-year development plans. That let us size the fiber layout and allocation for phased expansion without rebuilding as the map shifts.
DON’T JUST TAKE OUR WORD FOR IT!
“Other prints look fine until you’re in the dirt. Kartta holds up.”
James Miller, OSP Construction Project Manager /UTOPIA Fiber
”Most buildable print I’ve ever built from. Spot on down to the foot.”
Landon Beatty, Construction Project Manager
/ B. Jackson Construction
“We moved faster without paying for it later in rework.”
Lloyd N. Cheney, P.E., P.L.S., City Engineer, Public Works Director / Bountiful City, Bountiful Fiber
“Best engineering sets we’ve contracted. Accurate, defensible and ready to build.”
Vince Tanner, OSP Engineering Manager
/ UTOPIA Fiber
“Their approach ensures that utility companies are confident in the proposed design, facilitating approval.”
Zeke Bardwell, Inspector
/ Weber Basin Water Conservancy District
“Kartta verifies everything in the field so there are no surprises in construction…”
Brian Kelsey, OSP Engineering Manager
/ UTOPIA Fiber
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