August 3, 2026
Horner & Shifrin Acquires O’Neill & Company, Establishing a West Region Presence
St. Louis-based, 100-percent employee-owned firm expands its national footprint with Utah traffic and transportation engineering leader
Horner & Shifrin, Inc. (H&S), the 100-percent employee-owned, full-service engineering firm founded in St. Louis in 1933, today announced the acquisition of O’Neill & Company, the Salt Lake City-based traffic and transportation engineering firm founded by Carrie O’Neill, PE, with deep expertise in UDOT programs and West Region infrastructure. The acquisition establishes H&S’s first office in the West Region, its tenth overall, and advances the firm’s long-term strategy of geographic growth through the addition of high-performing, client-focused teams.
For H&S, the move strengthens the firm’s largest practice. The acquisition adds specialized depth in traffic signal design, intelligent transportation systems, roadway lighting, and signal synchronization to a transportation portfolio built over decades of roadway and bridge design, roadway safety, major intersection, and design-build work for state departments of transportation. Those capabilities create new opportunities for clients in both regions, extending the combined firm’s geographic reach to Utah and the broader West Region alongside its established presence in the Midwest and South.
The expansion reflects the strength of the firm’s employee-ownership model. H&S has been 100-percent employee-owned through an Employee Stock Ownership Plan since 1987, and every new market it enters extends that ownership culture: every staff member has a personal stake in client success. The firm earns a 94% client satisfaction rating across services spanning transportation, water and wastewater, stormwater and flood protection, building systems, environmental planning and permitting, surveying, and geospatial mapping.
“Growth through acquisition has always been about finding the right people with teams that share our values, our commitment to clients, and our belief that employee ownership makes a difference. O’Neill & Company is exactly that. This is a strong team with an excellent reputation, and we are excited to welcome them to Horner & Shifrin.”
Curt Peitzman, President
The Salt Lake City office will be led by a team with deep roots in the market. Since founding O’Neill & Company in 2012, the firm has designed more than 400 traffic signals across Utah for the Utah Department of Transportation, counties, and municipalities statewide. Her entire team joins H&S, and O’Neill will continue to lead the office as VP, Regional Manager. Effective today, O’Neill & Company operates as Horner & Shifrin.
“Horner & Shifrin’s culture, depth of expertise, and employee-ownership model made this the right fit for our team and our clients. We’re proud of what we’ve built in Utah, and this partnership gives us the platform to do even more.”
Carrie O’Neill, VP, Regional Manager Transportation