Transportation

Location

Salt Lake City, UT

Owner

Utah DoT

Contractor

Kiewit-led Joint Venture

Value

$1.3 billion

Completion

May 2001

In April 1997, a joint venture led by Kiewit Construction Company, a subsidiary of Kiewit Corporation began work on the I-15 Corridor Reconstruction. The $1.3 billion design-build project involved demolishing, designing, and reconstructing more than 16 mi. of freeway and 142 bridges.

The joint venture team built three major freeway-to-freeway interchanges and widened the previous six-lane highway to 12 lanes. Another element of the project involved construction of Utah's first High Occupancy Vehicle lanes. In addition to the roadway and structures work, the project also included increasing the vertical clearances at most bridges, improving earthquake resistance, and installing a new Automated Traffic Management System. Crews built 16 mi. of retaining walls and 10 mi. of sound walls, making them aesthetically pleasing by selecting a design and color scheme evocative of the surrounding mountains.

The project required more than one million design hours and over 12 million hours to complete. The freeway opened for public use in May 2001, well in advance of the 2002 Winter Olympics and several months ahead of the anticipated October 2001 completion date. Project managers credit co-location, over-the-shoulder design reviews and Partnering as key factors in the project's success.