Pulice - a Flatiron Dragados company has completed work on two new bridges over the Gila River in Arizona. The project represents one phase of a four-phase corridor improvement project on the Wild Horse Pass Corridor, a 26-mile stretch of Interstate 10 between south Phoenix and State Route 387 near Casa Grande, Arizona.
Overseen by the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT), the roughly $1 billion project will add a third general-purpose lane in each direction of I-10 through the Wild Horse Pass. Once complete, the entire corridor between Phoenix and Tucson will include three I-10 lanes in both directions for the first time. The full project is scheduled to be completed by late 2029.
“The improvement project is essentially a widening project to add a third general lane on I-10 between Phoenix and Casa Grande,” said Marcy McMacken, Public Information Officer with ADOT. “Once completed, the entire stretch of I-10 between Phoenix and Tucson — the state’s two biggest cities — will be three lanes in both directions. Currently, that stretch of I-10 between Phoenix and Casa Grande is still only two lanes in each direction. There are a lot of commuters on that stretch, and during peak travel periods, traffic really backs up. This is a much-needed improvement to help reduce traffic congestion on one of the state’s busiest interstate corridors.”
Because the new third lane is being added in the existing median, the footprint of the highway itself is not changing dramatically. However, work on the section over the Gila River between mileposts 172 and 174 — about 11 miles south of the Phoenix-Chandler area — required the demolition of two existing, two-lane bridges and the creation of two new, three-lane ones with an additional 6 feet of vertical clearance.
Pulice is the general contractor for the newly completed I-10 bridges portion of the improvement project. Work on the bridge project began in May 2024 at a contracted value of $50.99 million, and completion occurred in October 2026.
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The I-10 Bridges Over the Gila River Project involved the creation of two new bridges — dubbed the east bridge and west bridge — while at the same time demolishing and removing their aging counterparts.
In all, the project involved 14,014 cubic yards of roadway excavation, 8,295 linear feet of drilled shaft foundations, the application of 29,000 tons of asphaltic concrete, and the pouring of roughly 9,000 cubic yards of structural concrete. For their framing, the two bridges utilized precast UBT 50 girders fabricated by EnCon United’s Phoenix yard.
The bridge decks were poured using concrete mixed with microfibers and macrofibers — marking the first usage of either fibrous material for bridge decking on an ADOT bridge project. Adding fibers to the concrete mix “helps with aggregate distribution, and it also helps with crack control and ... [supports] the durability of the concrete in the bridge,” Pulice Area Manager Amy Haymaker said in a company social media post about the bridges.
Using fibers required crews to be especially diligent in their quality control during pouring and placement of the concrete aggregate. Accommodating the addition of fibers required a lighter-than-usual concrete mix. To account for that differential, Pulice crews added weight onto their drag pans to ensure the mixture achieved a smooth finish.
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From a construction management perspective, crews also worked to reduce the impact on traffic in the area by limiting road closures to a single lane, and only at night. Additionally, workers phased the new bridges’ construction and old bridges’ demolition with an eye toward minimizing traffic interruptions and safety risks.
Original work plans called for partial construction of the two new, three-lane bridges while traffic continued to flow on the old, two-lane bridges. But with ADOT’s approval, Pulice rephased the project from the original plan, erecting half of the new eastbound bridge to accommodate a westbound traffic shift, then building the entire westbound structure. The team then completed the eastbound crossing.
“We totally rephased the project, and that allowed us to eliminate a lot of construction safety risks in a tight corridor,” said Reza Kamalizad, a Senior Project Manager at Pulice. “We first built half of the [new] east bridge, and we shifted the westbound traffic over that half-built bridge, so that we could then remove the [old] westbound bridge. Then, when the full [new] westbound bridge was constructed, we put both the east and westbound traffic over the westbound bridge. Our final step was to remove the old eastbound bridge and build the other half of the new eastbound bridge.”
As of mid-August, crews had completed 95 percent of the I-10 Bridge Project work, with teams working on finishing touches such as paving for the approaches and installing concrete barriers and final roadway striping and signage. Both of the bridges are now complete.
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The I-10 Bridge Project involved land within the Gila River Indian Community Reservation in Arizona. As a result, staff members at both ADOT and Pulice worked closely with tribal leaders on the project’s overall design and installation.
“We established a good relationship and good coordination with the Indian Community,” Kamalizad said. “Everyone working on the site went through special cultural awareness training.”
“ADOT’s been working very closely with the Gila River Indian Community to plan for this widening and interchange reconstruction [across the entire Wild Horse Pass Corridor Project],” McMacken added. “There are about five interchanges throughout the whole 26 miles that are being reconstructed, and we are adding two new interchanges — one close to Phoenix and one closer to Casa Grande — after conferring with the Indian Community.”
Well before construction began on the bridge corridor, members of the tribal community conducted investigations of the area to ensure excavations there would not disrupt culturally significant artifacts or lands.
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Then, once work began, a member of the monitoring team was present during excavation operations to monitor the work at all times, further ensuring that no tribal heritage areas or artifacts were unearthed or destroyed during the build.
As part of the project, teams at both ADOT and Pulice attended outreach programming at reservation schools to help students learn more about the engineering efforts behind the project.
“One of the things the Indian Community asked ADOT to do was to offer workforce development opportunities for any community members who might be interested in a possible career in freeway construction,” McMacken said. “We worked with local schools to provide field trips to high school students to watch the bridge demolition, and we visited elementary schools to let kids hear from ADOT engineers and touch and interact with construction equipment. We also held other workforce development events for the community.”
“We’ve had a very good relationship with the entire ADOT team on this project, as well as the local Indian Community,” Kamalizad said. “The close working partnership between all the project stakeholders has been one of the highlights of this job and set an example for the rest of the corridor.”
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- Owner: Arizona Department of Transportation
- Lead Constructor: Pulice - a Flatiron Dragados company, Scottsdale, Arizona
- Corridor Engineering Partners: HDR Inc., Omaha, Nebraska; Stantec, Edmonton, Alberta
- Subcontractors: A Core Concrete Cutting Inc., A3 Trucking & Demolition LLC, ATL Inc. dba CMT Technical Services, AUZA Contracting Inc., AZ Grademaker Inc., Badger Daylight Corp., Bragg Investment Company Inc., Brundage-Bone Concrete Pumping Inc., Buesing Corporation, Cactus Transport II LLC, Consor Engineering LLC, EnCon Arizona LLC TPAC, EROS Environmental/Argus Construction, Evergreen Spray Inc., Fink Trucking, Franklin Striping Inc., The Ground Level Company, HOWE Precast Concrete Barriers, Hunter Guardrail and Fence Inc., iSX Construction LLC, Lone Star Trucking, Marco Crane and Rigging Co., Mardian Concrete Pumping (Lower Tier), McNeil Brothers Inc., Michels Construction Inc., Olsson Inc., OTTO Trucking Inc., P&M Construction Services Inc., Paradise Rebar Inc., Roadway Electric LLC, Salty Dog Trucking LLC, Signature Trucking and Transport, Southwest Barricades LLC, Serrano Painting, Spray Systems of Arizona, TYPSA Inc. (AZTEC Engineering Group Inc.), Western Sweeping, WSP Inc., Z+K Engineering Inc.
