Cold War Construction
In 1951, Kiewit was selected to construct an air base in the high arctic at Thule, Greenland. This then top–secret project, known as Operation Bluejay, required the hiring and training of 5,000 workers, and the procurement and transportation of countless shiploads of equipment and material through iceberg-laden seas.
Kiewit and its joint venture partners would remain at Thule for the next 15 years. In addition to further development of the base, they constructed BMEWS (ballistic missile early warning system) radar screens as big as football fields and the eastern end of the DEW (distant early warning) Line, building radar domes right on the Greenland icecap.
In 1952, the Atomic Energy Commission awarded Kiewit the $1.2 billion Gaseous Diffusion Plant project at Portsmouth, Ohio. The plant, which was one of the largest construction contracts the government had ever awarded, was needed to refine Uranium 235 for both military and civilian nuclear operations.
Kiewit built bases for the Strategic Air Command at Minot, North Dakota; Glasgow, Montana; and Rapid City, South Dakota. It also built numerous Titan and Minuteman missile facilities throughout the nation.