“I think there is no doubt we want to be focused on the complicated jobs,” Dave Miles, president of Kiewit Infrastructure Group, tells ENR. “We want the ones that take our technical expertise.”

Managing complication requires a singular outlook. Quoting Kiewit CEO Rick Lanoha, Miles says the firm aims to be a “solution provider” with clients. That means encouraging alternative delivery, bringing real solutions in both construction and engineering, having honest and transparent conversations and building cooperative relationships that offer success for both Kiewit and the client. “We are not afraid to talk about the things [clients] don’t want to talk about,” Miles says. “It helps get to solutions faster.”

Kiewit’s roots in the Pacific Northwest stretch to 1939 when the company took on the Fort Lewis Project in Washington, building 1,540 facilities for the U.S. Army in only 90 days. It was the company’s largest project at the time and started a presence in the region that expanded in the 1940s with the Friant-Kern Canal.

Today, the company is a mainstay for regional agencies handling complicated megaprojects for clients such as Sound Transit in Washington. The two have spent years working on the multibillion-dollar light rail extension that includes the early delivery of the Federal Way Link Extension and the now-open Lynnwood Link Extension and Redmond Link Extension.

The growing work with Sound Transit is part relationship and part know-how. Despite a lengthy pause working with the agency, when the large program came up, Miles used his relationships to bring Kiewit back into the Sound Transit fold, first in collaboration with others and then alone on Federal Way, slated for an early opening this fall.

Even with the turnover within Sound Transit, Miles says they continue focusing on building trust—even if things don’t always go as planned, such as on the East Link project that includes building light rail across the world’s longest floating bridge.

“Those jobs come with unique challenges,” Miles says. “Any time you are building rail over a floating bridge, you are going to learn some things. We want to be right there with them.”

Perhaps the premiere example of Kiewit’s unafraid approach is ENR Best Project-winning Klamath River Renewal project, which is primarily in Northern California but includes a portion in Southern Oregon. According to Miles, the firm’s employees embrace the unique challenges of such jobs.

“Our team just keeps coming up with newer and better and more innovative ideas,” he says. “It is super exciting to deliver on something that is going to be life-changing.”

No project is without complications, but Miles says the key is taking them on without making it a fight with the client. Instead, it’s about finding solutions transparently. He cites the successful removal of the four dams in the Klamath project, spanning Oregon and California, noting that the first time he saw the project he wasn’t sure how it was going to get done. But they found a way. “I think that is what is really super fun,” he says. “You get a once-in-a-lifetime kind of project and as things have evolved, these once-in-a-lifetimes are coming once a year.”

Larger projects certainly present unique problems and opportunities, but that also exists with smaller projects in Kiewit’s portfolio. Kiewit’s transmission division is working on a five-year capital improvement wildlife hardening program involving transmission lines, distribution lines and substations in Washington, Oregon, California, Wyoming and Utah for a regional utility.

Kiewit is also tackling five to seven fish passage projects annually—typically valued under $100 million—for the Washington State Dept. of Transportation. These types of projects keep the firm rooted in relationships and focused on growth.

Kyler Kokenge, WSDOT project engineer, worked with Kiewit on two large fish-passage projects. “We’ve built a strong, collaborative relationship” with Kiewit, he says, with both groups working to understand each other’s priorities and find win-win solutions.

Fish passage projects fall under an injunction timeline, forcing schedules and priorities. “Kiewit’s culture of driving schedule while balancing owner requirements and third-party interests—such as resource agencies and tribes—has been a great fit,” Kokenge says, adding it has allowed them to start new projects with a “shared playbook already in place.”

Kokenge credits Kiewit with helping navigate new delivery methods and complex constraints while maintaining a tight schedule. “Their adaptability, problem-solving and collaborative approach have been key to our success,” he says, adding that the Kiewit experience helped the WSDOT team successfully navigate the learning curve on their first project together and then handle complexity on the second project, which had 29 unique stream crossings over more than 100 miles of highway, each with its own set of geotechnical, wetland and habitat constraints.

But working big is often predicated on working small. “We talk about the importance of having projects under $100 million to put young people on those types of projects to get quicker training and development than on a large project,” Miles says. “We can put a young team of six to eight people on a fish passage project, and they can learn everything from beginning to end in six months. It is great training.”

Kiewit has also found opportunities in specific sectors. As a large corporation, Kiewit divides itself into distinct districts with eight focus areas: power, 31% of Kiewit’s national revenue in 2024; transportation, 23%; water, 13%; oil, gas and chemical, 10%; marine, 9%; building, 7%; industrial, 6%; and mining, 1%. Water is one of the fastest growing of the eight, and Miles says he sees that continuing in the future.

In Oregon, the firm has taken the lead on the Columbia Boulevard Wastewater Treatment Plant expansion, the Willamette Water Supply Raw Water Facilities Project and the $2-billion Bull Run Filtration Facility for the Portland Water Bureau.

Miles cites the growth of water projects as a key driver for the company nationwide and in the Pacific Northwest, even if they often provide some of the trickiest permitting and planning requirements. “We are staying with the client,” he says about any issues, “and being helpful instead of being a hinderance. There are so many challenges that are not the contractor or client’s fault, but they have to come together.”

Part of what makes Kiewit successful in the region is encouraging clients to embrace the alternate delivery method of the CMGC model—Kiewit uses that contract on 14% of its projects nationwide, it’s third most popular delivery method—because it allows clients to get input early and accelerate preengineering. “By being there early in the design, we are pointing out challenges and changes in technology and can do that as we advance the project through stages,” Miles says. “Mostly, it accelerates the project. If a traditional job takes 10 years, we think we can do it in five.”

Kiewit remains focused on workforce development programs in the Pacific Northwest, using the programs as a model to bring to other regions to help create a workforce eager to work throughout the region, not just in Seattle or Portland.

Moving forward, Miles says there’s still plenty of big opportunities in the Pacific Northwest, from the Interstate Bridge Replacement Program to Sound Transit’s program to a growing need in water. Through it all, Kiewit aims to serve as a solution provider. “Clients and contractors have [complicated issues] to figure out,” Miles says. “They are only successful if they are together and [they] have to be open and transparent to do that.”