TEMPE, AZ A Sundt/Stacy and Witbeck joint venture earned a 2016 Arizona Transportation Partnering Excellence for its partnership on the Northwest Light Rail Extension for Valley Metro. The award was presented at the Annual Roads & Streets Conference in Tucson, Arizona.

The joint venture of Sundt Construction, Inc. and Stacy and Witbeck, completed the 3.2-mile extension to the Valley Metro light rail system in March 2016.

The project was delivered three months ahead of schedule and within budget despite the challenges of being located in an urban area with a high volume of vehicular and pedestrian traffic. Sundt/Stacy and Witbeck also coordinated more than 20 months of utility construction to remove and replace 100 percent of the water, sewer and storm systems.

"The project team recognized the complexity and magnitude early on of the utility relocation and identified it as a critical component to the success of the project," Sundt Senior Project Engineer Chris Elison said. "The collaboration we had with employees from Valley Metro and the city of Phoenix, as well as the local community and stakeholders, made it easy to partner with them and made the whole building experience memorable."

To keep the community informed, the team developed a smartphone app to provide project updates and information about changing traffic control. The app also contained coupons, business promotions, route information and information about community groups.

The awards recognize partnerships that demonstrate a high degree of achievement through their practice of the partnering principles and application of partnering processes related to the transportation industry.