It was opened on August 22, 1986, and was about 50 miles (80 km) from the site of another cross-country milestone in Utah, the driving of the golden spike of the first transcontinental railroad at Promontory Summit.

[3] Every year, the Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) conducts a series of surveys on its highways to measure traffic volumes.

[7][8] The highway closely follows the historical routes of the Wendover Cut-off, Victory Highway,[9] and formerly Western Pacific Railroad's Feather River Route (now part of the Union Pacific Railroad Central Corridor) across the salt flats and the larger Great Salt Lake Desert.

[11] In the middle of the salt flats is a concrete sculpture, Metaphor: The Tree of Utah, which stands just off the westbound carriageway of I-80, 30 miles (48 km) east of Wendover.

[12] Bounded on each sides by military training grounds,[13] the I-80 corridor is overflown by commercial airliners traveling west from Salt Lake City International Airport.

After the intersection, the freeway corridor is again bottlenecked with the Great Salt Lake to the north and the Kennecott Utah Copper smelter and tailings pond to the south.

The Green Line of the Utah Transit Authority (UTA) TRAX system briefly parallels I-80 before traveling down the center of North Temple Street.

The southern interchange with I-15, which also includes SR-201 (21st South Freeway) and marks the end of the concurrency, is known as the Spaghetti Bowl.

[21] In the southwestern corner of the Spaghetti Bowl is another portion of the UTA TRAX Green Line as it travels towards West Valley City.

Between 1848 and 1851, Pratt surveyed, completed, and operated the Golden Pass toll road through the canyon that today bears his name.

[28][29] The Historic Union Pacific Rail Trail State Park travels in the median between carriageways of I-80 before paralleling the highway until the southern end of Echo Reservoir.

In western Utah, I-80 follows the historical route of the Victory Highway from Wendover at the Nevada state line to the junction of US-40 near Park City.

By the late 1970s, the Utah portion of I-80—except for a gap on the western edge of Salt Lake City—was largely complete.

A 4.5-mile-long (7.2 km) section between Redwood Road and Salt Lake City International Airport is the final link of the transcontinental freeway to be completed.

This section was dedicated on August 22, 1986, and was the last to be completed to Interstate Highway specifications along the almost 2,900-mile-long (4,700 km) route of I-80 between San Francisco, California, and Teaneck, New Jersey.

[47] It was also noted at the dedication that this was only 50 miles (80 km) south of Promontory Summit, where the golden spike of the US's first transcontinental railroad was laid.

[44] Rebuilding of the first portions of I-80 began in October 1990 with a 1.4-mile-long (2.3 km) stretch near Redwood Road in Salt Lake City.

[53] In 2002, the Utah State Legislature named the highway the Purple Heart trail,[54] in honor of wounded war veterans.

[55] Additional reconstruction work—which involved the replacement of most of the bridges along the route and the resurfacing and installation of sound barriers—was done on I-80 between the Spaghetti Bowl and Parleys Canyon from 2007 to 2008.