Begun in January 2003, Atkins provided construction inspection and quality assurance augmentation to support the Federal Highway Administration – Central Federal Lands Highway Division’s construction management team.

This $240 million, 3.5-mile corridor consisted of completely new roadways, constructed on extremely rugged terrain under severe environmental conditions. It included two precast concrete I-girder bridges, four cast-in-place post-tensioned concrete box girder bridges, one structural steel box girder bridge, and the 2,000-foot-long Mike O’Callaghan-Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge, also known as the Colorado Bridge. A concrete and steel composite structure crossing the canyon 900 feet above the Colorado River with a 1,600-foot-span cast-in-place, double-ribbed concrete arch, the bridge is the largest concrete arch structure in the western hemisphere and the fifth largest in the world.

The environmentally sensitive and historic features of the work location meant that all aspects of the project’s progress and visual quality were under intense public scrutiny through all phases of the project.

The Hoover Dam Bypass opened to public traffic in October 2010, providing greatly enhanced public safety by alleviating a longstanding, dangerous bottleneck and eliminating the potential security threat of general traffic on the dam. Travel time has been reduced by up to two hours during peak tourist seasons.

• CDM coordination
• Project & programme management

Link to this project: