Today, Kiewit's staff of 10,000 and its 14,000 craftworkers are located in offices across the United States, Canada and abroad, and the firm is best known for its projects in the transportation, power, petroleum and water sectors.

More than 1,800 of the contractor's employees are located in 10 offices throughout the Mountain West, where Kiewit is focused primarily on industrial, infrastructure and mining work.

Despite the challenging economy, “growth has been strong in all sectors, and Kiewit has a positive backlog of work going into 2012,” says Tom Janssen, Kiewit's director of external affairs.

Work will begin next year on several Colorado projects, including the Denver Veterans Administration facility, an improvement project at Denver International Airport and a wastewater treatment plant in Longmont. Other key projects will include the Orange Street sewer rehabilitation in Salt Lake City and the Highway 40 water supply project in Roosevelt, Utah.

Making History

Kiewit's high-profile projects over the years include the $615-million Tacoma Narrows Bridge in Washington, which connects Gig Harbor to Tacoma; Denver's $1.28-billion T-REX highway and mass transit overhaul; and the $5.3-billion Hibernia Oil Platform in Newfoundland.

Kiewit is currently building all of the transit elements—including an underground commuter bus facility, transit station, roads and plazas—for the $358-million makeover of Denver's historic Union Station. The contractor is self-performing all track work, earthwork, dewatering and structural concrete/precast elements on the job.

The project also includes building or rebuilding several lower downtown streets as well as creating new public spaces to make a walkable community that will blend with future development in the lower downtown area.

Crews recently finished the first half of the underground bus facility, and a new light-rail platform is due to open this month. The entire project is scheduled for completion in spring 2014.

An Innovative Edge

One of the most innovative Kiewit-led efforts under construction in the Mountain States is the $37.4-million Geneva Road design-build project in Orem, Utah, where the contractor is working with Parsons Transportation Group, South Jordan, Utah, to widen a busy four-mile section of road through the city's business district.

Kiewit spokeswoman Randi Stover says the contractor won the job in part due to its plan to use timber piles to reduce vibration and thus protect high-pressure gas and sewer lines and enable them to be left in place to save relocation costs.

More than 2,000 timber piles and 3,700 steel piles have been used on the project. Construction began in January and is scheduled for completion in May 2012.