Twin Mountain Construction Co. has taken on a number of high-profile New Mexico-based interstate projects over the past 20-plus years.

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Twin Mountain Construction Co. has built its reputation on a series of high-profile interstate projects it has been a part of since its 1986 inception in Albuquerque, N.M.

This includes the “Big I,” a $237 million construction interchange project completed in 2002, as well as Coors I-40 in 2006 and, currently, Rail Runner Phase II. All are for the New Mexico Department of Transportation.

Vice President Gray Kite describes the company as a “well-respected, safe, high-quality, full-service contractor” with a niche in design/build. “We do quite a bit of the larger design/build jobs in New Mexico,” he says. “From a civil side, we build the larger, more complex projects.”

Twin Mountain is a mid-sized specialty contractor focused solely on New Mexico civil jobs, yet its affiliation with its parent corporation, Omaha, Neb.-based Kiewit Corp., gives it the breadth of resources to win bids on very competitive, high-profile highway projects. “That’s one of the good things about being part of a very large organization,” Kite adds.

“One of the biggest ways we separate ourselves is our depth of resources. We have a lot of resources that we can draw on, and I believe those resources allow us to separate ourselves from the competition when a high-profile, schedule-demanding job is out there.

“We have the resources to take on projects that maybe some organizations might not.”

The resources are not only related to financing but a competent staff that Kite describes as “ethical, safety conscious and quality conscious.”

This has led to strong partnerships with other construction companies.

“We have good working relationships with a majority of the industry,” he notes. “We have a fixed-base asphalt plant facility in Albuquerque and we’re a material supplier to a lot of the general contractors.

“We also work as a subcontractor on certain projects, but we’re probably 95 percent general contracting. We prefer to self-perform.”

Rail Runner Phase II
Twin Mountain has “a lot of work on our hands that we’re trying to get finished up,” Kite says. “We currently have a lot of railroad work going on, high-profile railroad projects for the Rail Runner commuter train from Albuquerque to Santa Fe. We have several miles’ worth of that work going on right now and our big goals are to have that completed by Thanksgiving.”

Rail Runner is part of New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson’s 2003 investment partnership, which is a state-funded bond program that provides assets for highway and related construction projects.

Twin Mountain was the contractor on Phase I, and was part of the team that won the Southwest Contractor “Best Project Management 2007” award for its efforts. In August 2007, it was awarded Phase II. The $121 million design/build project consists of 18 miles of new commuter rail, bridges and five cut-and-cover concrete boxes.

Despite New Mexico’s generally warm climate, “it was a cold winter up in Sante Fe,” Kite recalls. “The winter weather was a little challenging with so much excavation to move.” However, the project is currently 40 percent complete, and Twin Mountain expects to meet its Nov. 15 deadline for substantial completion.

Coors I-40
Coors I-40, an $85 million design/build interchange project, was also part of the governor’s bond program. Twin Mountain’s task was to rebuild the Coors Boulevard and I-40 interchange on the west side of Albuquerque and construct eight bridges, all on a 20-month schedule.

“One challenging thing was it had a very long, curved steel plate girder bridge, so erecting the girders was kind of unique,” Kite says. “Another challenge was handling the traffic. More than 100,000 vehicles go through that interchange every day, so handling traffic on the job [prompted] us to work day and night. You can’t take a lane before 9 a.m. or after 3 p.m., so dayshift non-peak hours and night shifts are when you can get a lot done.” The project began in fall 2004 and was completed in summer 2006.

Big I
Twin Mountain began work on the Big I project in July 2000. The $237 million construction interchange project entailed constructing 112 lane-miles of roadway, 42 bridges and renovating 13 existing bridges. “Of these 55 bridges, eight were precast segmental, which we fabricated and precast ourselves right on site,” Kite says.

The company removed approximately 2.6 million cubic yards of soil on the project and worked 1.4 million manhours “just for Twin Mountain; we probably had almost that many additional manhours in subcontractors,” he says.

The most challenging aspect of the project without a doubt was “maneuvering traffic to get equipment from one location to the other when you have 365,000 cars a day coming through the construction site,” Kite recalls. Twin Mountain overcame the hurdle through “proper advanced planning, detouring and notification to the traveling public,” he says.

“The public was a huge part of the project’s success because they … used the alternative detours we set up to keep them out of the construction zone.”