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Kiewit Engineering Group Canada ULC has won a 2025 Award of Excellence from the Association of Consulting Engineering Companies British Columbia (ACEC-BC) for its B.C. Highway Reinstatement Program – Highway 1 Nicomen River Bridge Replacement project.

The company won in the for restoring critical infrastructure after the fall 2021 floods in B.C.

Kiewit partnered with the B.C. Ministry of Transportation and Transit to replace the damaged bridge, which was built in 1957, with a seismically robust two-span girder structure.

The bridge – before and after – is located on Highway 1 between Lytton and Spences Bridge, B.C., approximately 290 kilometres from Vancouver.

In November 2021, southwestern B.C. was hit with an unusually strong atmospheric river that brought a near-record amount of rain.

“The event caused extremely high stream flow on the Nicomen River, a tributary of the Thompson River, which led to significant damage to the Highway 1 Nicomen River Bridge,” says Kiewit design manager Matthew Lea. “The rain also eroded the riverbank, undermining the footings of the southernmost pier and resulting in settlement that damaged the overall structure.”

The new crossing is a two-span, 70-metre curved structural steel bridge with a fixed central pier and semi-integral abutments.

“That eliminates expansion joints at either end of the bridge, which reduces maintenance costs for the province,” says Lea. “The bridge incorporates steel pile foundations and a span arrangement that positions the central pier outside of the Nicomen River, which improves resilience against scour.”

The new bridge improves safety and access along Highway 1 in several ways:

* The widened roadway improves local access and increases clearance at the nearby rail underpass;

* wider shoulders enable vehicles to see around the tight curve and make safer decisions about speed and approach; and

* improved access to Nicomen River Road make it safer for local drivers to enter and exit the highway.

The bridge replacement project team used the Alliance delivery model.

“This model brings the owner, contractor and designer together early in the project design to align the parties around the project objectives and work toward shared goals,” says Lea. “The model emphasizes open communication, transparency, risk-sharing and collective accountability.”

The Alliance model made it easy to make best-for-project decisions that led to innovative design solutions and lower-cost delivery ahead of schedule.

An example of design innovation was increasing the clearance at the nearby Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC) railway underpass.

“It was a change outside the original scope of the project,” says Lea. “It brought long-term benefits to the highway and to CPKC. That kind of flexibility and collaboration wouldn’t have been possible with a traditional delivery model.”

The project team had to deal with a number of challenges before the work was completed.

“During installation of the foundation, the rock conditions we encountered differed from what we had expected,” says Lea. “The Alliance model enabled us to rapidly pivot and revise the design and construction to suit the new conditions without delaying the project.”

In-stream works had been originally planned and permitted for January to March 2024.

“However, in October 2023, environmental monitors identified spawning pink salmon in the Nicomen River upstream and downstream of the project site,” says Lea.

Because pink salmon eggs incubate over the winter and typically emerge in April and May, construction could no longer proceed during the original window without risking damage to the eggs.

“In December 2023, the Alliance adjusted the scope and configuration of the in-stream works and moved construction to align with the extended provincial least-risk window, which ran from July to September 2024,” says Lea.

The project team monitored water quality, put spawning gravel in place and, in collaboration with the local Indigenous community, planted willow trees.

“Working in close collaboration with the Nicomen Indian Band, whose community is directly adjacent to the bridge, we incorporated cultural awareness, community engagement events, such as a Kids Voice in Safety event, and local participation into every phase of the project,” says Lea.

Kiewit is honoured to have received the award from ACEC-BC, he says. 

“The success of the project is the result of our integrated approach whereby the owner and Kiewit designed and executed the project as one team,” says Lea. “The Nicomen River Bridge replacement was about more than restoring critical infrastructure. It was an opportunity to build stronger relationships and deliver meaningful outcomes for the local community.”