KIEWIT REBUILDS CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE TO HELP RESTORE COMMUNITIES WITH INEIGHT
Delivering bridge rebuilds ahead of schedule with integrated project controls and data-driven insights
Kiewit is one of North America’s largest and most respected construction and engineering companies. Tackling some of the industry’s most complex, challenging projects, Kiewit brings a wealth of diverse resources. Kiewit was recognized as #3 on Engineering News-Record’s list of Top 400 Contractors in 2025 and has been named one of the Top 50 Best Workplaces by the Great Place to Work® Institute Canada every year since 2011. When Hurricane Helene struck the Southeastern United States in September 2024, it left behind widespread devastation, including the destruction of key bridges in Eastern Tennessee. These crossings provided a vital link between the Greeneville, Jonesborough, and Erwin communities, prompting the Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) to act quickly on recovery efforts with one of its first progressive design-build contracts awarded to Kiewit Infrastructure South Co. Utilizing the full suite of InEight modules throughout the process, Kiewit completed the rebuilding of two bridges a full month ahead of schedule, making this project the fastest delivery of a major river crossing in TDOT’s history.
SOLUTION BENEFITS:
Accelerated project delivery, with two major bridge rebuilds completed a full month ahead of schedule
Optimized critical planning and progress tracking, allowing for daily goal setting and execution
Enabled financial tracking, forecasting, and change management to ensure accurate payments and complete traceability
Enhanced coordination with streamlined document management and real-time access to drawings and RFIs in the field
KIEWIT AT A GLANCE
LOCATION:
North America
REVENUE:
$16.8B
EMPLOYEES:
31,800
INEIGHT PRODUCTS
InEight Estimate InEight Document InEight Change InEight Contract InEight Control InEight Plan & Progress InEight Completions InEight Compliance InEight Report & Explore
INTEGRATED PROJECT MANAGEMENT SOLUTION SUPPORTS DISASTER RECOVERY EFFORTS
When Hurricane Helene hit in 2024, Tennessee’s Nolichucky River – usually a calm two-foot-deep creek – rose to nearly 34 feet with a flow rate of 84,000 cubic feet per second, wiping out critical bridges between multiple communities. To restore the lost connectivity, Kiewit was awarded a $56.5 million contract to rebuild two key crossings: the SR-81 bridge in Washington County and the SR-107 bridge in Greene County. From the start, the project faced extraordinary challenges. As Benson Robbins, Kiewit Project Engineer, notes: “The first challenge was the rapid mobilization; we don’t have an office in Johnson City, Tennessee, and we don’t have a lot of resources there. This is a recovering area, so how do we get people, equipment, and materials there?” As logistics were being sorted, underground conditions also posed significant unknowns. Built on drilled shaft foundations in the Appalachian foothills, the bridges required drilling through areas where voids and caverns are commonly found, raising concerns about staying on schedule. “We didn’t know what we were going to find once we started putting a big drill in the ground,” Robbins says. “You can do all kinds of exploratory research for the underground, but at the end of the day, it’s a giant mystery what is actually underneath the surface of the earth.” Concrete added another layer of complexity. With work beginning in October and a June deadline, pours had to continue through the winter, despite this not being common for the season.
“We didn’t know what we were going to find once we started putting a big drill in the ground. At the end of the day, it’s a giant mystery what is actually beneath the surface.”
- Benson Robbins, Project Engineer, Kiewit
Expedited delivery was critical because the destruction of the bridges had isolated communities and turned daily commutes into detours. Fortunately (and coincidentally), Tennessee’s newly passed Transportation Modernization Act made it possible to deliver the project under a progressive design-build contract. This relatively new project delivery model combines design, right-of-way acquisition, regulatory permit approvals, utility relocation, and construction under a single contract, allowing the design and construction phases of a project to proceed concurrently. “Using this approach, our design team could hit the ground running with foundation design, which cleared the path for us to get to work. They continued designing the pieces above the foundations while we installed the foundation,” Robbins says. “The progressive design-build approach offers a major advantage when a project starts as nothing more than a concept; in this case, we had two bridges collapse, and we needed to replace them quickly. TDOT was able to fast-track the project and give this delivery method a trial run, likely under the most stressful conditions that they’ll ever face.” To support this intensive process, Kiewit relied on the comprehensive suite of InEight products to manage the project’s quick turnaround and complexity under extreme circumstances.
CONNECTED WORKFLOWS AND REPORTING SPEEDS EMERGENCY REBUILD
On a project where every hour counted, Kiewit relied on InEight to keep teams aligned and confident. As the team mobilized, they used InEight Estimate to provide TDOT with clear timeframes and availability of resources, while InEight Document helped Kiewit manage internal document control and link to Bluebeam so field teams could easily access drawings or RFIs. Kiewit also leveraged InEight Control for financial tracking, forecasting, and performance monitoring. Daily and weekly reports kept budgets and schedules tightly managed.
“The forecasting aspect of InEight is huge. We were looking at those projections on a daily basis to make sure we were going to hit our schedule.”
- Benson Robbins, Project Engineer, Kiewit
InEight Plan & Progress fully integrated with InEight Control for Kiewit’s daily planning and quantity tracking. As Robbins explains: “Our field engineers and our superintendents were required to make a plan every single day with planned hours and goals. The community members were waiting on us, and we didn’t have time to lose.” InEight Contract & Change tracked actual quantities versus claimed and managed changes, ensuring traceability and accurate subcontractor payments. Kiewit teams also relied on InEight Compliance and InEight Completions for field checklists and safety documentation via mobile devices, while InEight’s Report & Explore module helped maintain the accelerated project pace. Reporting through InEight was especially important for daily and weekly project oversight. “Every day, I would get a report in my inbox: are all the timecards in? Did people claim? Did they meet their goals?” Robbins says. “And it was all completely integrated with InEight Control, so we had all the data we needed to stay on track.”
RAPID REBUILD BRINGS MEANINGFUL COMMUNITY IMPACT
Supported by InEight, Kiewit completed both bridge rebuilds in less than eight months – one full month ahead of schedule. Robbins credits the positive team culture with driving the high morale and success of the project. Most of the team flew in from around the country, working 14- to 16-hour days for 10-day stretches. Yet, despite the intensity, no one complained. “There was none of that ‘that’s not my job’ mentality. Everyone jumped in to help – from those working in the field all the way up to the project manager, we all just did what we had to do to get the job done. It was a true team effort, and it didn’t really matter what your position was,” Robbin says. Helene wreaked unprecedented havoc on the area, and emotions were running high, but locals offered unwavering support for Kiewit’s team as they worked to restore the bridges. “It’s not often you get to work on an infrastructure job where people actually want to hug you and thank you. Random strangers would see our trucks, wave at us, and stop to say thank you,” Robbins recalls. Even while consumed by the major repair and replacement, the team still found more ways to give. During construction, Kiewit employees volunteered through the Appalachia Service Project, clearing debris, building porches, and constructing wheelchair ramps. “We still found time to take a whole carpenter crew to go rebuild someone’s deck, a patio, and part of a house, and we donated over $200,000 to relief foundations,” Robbins shares. And when Robbins and other Kiewit team members returned for the ribbon cutting of the completed bridges, the community response rewarded every moment of hard work and sacrifice: “There were probably 10 to 15 local community members that took the time to shake the hand of every single one of our craft guys there.”
IMPROVED EFFICIENCY
TONS
46,000 tons of aggregate were placed for the SR 81 bridge, along with foundation concrete that would fill an Olympic sized pool.
POUNDS
Girders weighing hundreds of thousands of pounds were installed on the SR 107 bridge, with enough bridge concrete to frame 12+ homes.
LEVERAGING INEIGHT TO ADVANCE KIEWIT’S DISASTER RESPONSE
While the hope is that disasters don’t happen, the reality is that they do. The success of this project not only provided valuable lessons for the Kiewit team but also shaped how they approach disaster recovery as a whole, supported by InEight. “It helps us think about future projects and things like, is it worth going the extra 10 feet on this foundation if we have a 1000-year flood?” Robbins says. “We’re going to be in a good position to help communities after going through this because this project gave us insight into what the infrastructure looks like, what failed, and under what conditions it failed.”
“We’re going to be in a good position to help communities after going through this because this project gave us insight into what the infrastructure looks like, what failed, and under what conditions it failed.”
- Benson Robbins, Project Engineer, Kiewit
Operating under a progressive design-build contract was a game-changer for this project, and Kiewit hopes it can serve as an example to other communities and states considering this approach. “We rebuilt two bridges: nothing was technically challenging about them, but we had to go fast and do it right. Working that fast is a testament to the people, but also to the contract model,” Robbins says. He also reflects on the benefits his team gained from this experience – and how that experience will help Kiewit clients in the future. “This kind of work is fast-paced, it’s stressful, and it takes a lot of effort to go through, so it ends up being a really great learning experience for our people and can push them to be the best they can be,” he says. “The success of this job makes us smarter for the next one, and it helps us to better advise our clients.”
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