DENVER, CO  Atkins, one of the world's most respected design, engineering and project management firms, is to play a key role in the development of a freeway that will help transform the city of Las Vegas, Nevada.

As design lead on the team led by Kiewit Infrastructure West, Atkins will manage all design and engineering services for Nevada Department of Transportation's (NDOT) Project NEON - a freeway project that will boost safety, mobility, and accessibility in Las Vegas.

Project NEON is a significant win for Atkins in North America and will involve the development of a 3.7-mile corridor through the heart of Las Vegas, an area currently seeing 300,000 vehicle movements every day.  

"Atkins is tremendously proud to be the lead design firm for this critical project, which has been deemed NDOT's most important and ambitious in its history," said L. Joe Boyer, CEO, Atkins, North America. "Project NEON is essential to the progression of Las Vegas' transportation demands and quality of life, given traffic is expected to double for this corridor in the next 20 years."

The construction project will be phased throughout three years starting in 2016 and connect high occupancy vehicle lanes on U.S. 95 to I-15 express lanes with a flyover bridge, creating direct access carpool lanes and a new "Neon Gateway" interchange.

"Project NEON addresses a multitude of corridor deficiencies related to congestion, crash rates, operations, and system linkages," said Rudy Malfabon, NDOT, Director. "It will dramatically improve traffic congestion in Southern Nevada, while also creating 4,000 high-paying, quality jobs."