LAS VEGAS — The Hood Canal Bridge retrofit and replacement project has been named one of the most significant construction projects of 2010 by the Associated General Contractors of America.

As a result, the project’s contractor, Kiewit-General, was one of 20 firms to receive the association’s Aon Build America Award, the association announced Wednesday from Arlington, Va.

“These projects require tremendous skill, extraordinary craftsmanship and dogged determination from their contractors,” said Ted Aadland, the association’s president and the CEO of Portland, Ore.-based Aadland Evans Constructors Inc.

“Frankly, they are the kind of projects many of us dread starting and all of us dream of completing.”

The Hood Canal Bridge won for best renovation of a highway and transportation project.

The Aon Build America Awards recognize the nation’s most significant construction projects. The awards were announced during the association’s annual convention in Las Vegas.

A panel of judges representing all areas of construction evaluated more than 115 projects this year, assessing each project’s complexity, use of innovative construction techniques and coordination with partners, among other criteria.

The east end of the Hood Canal Bridge was replaced in 2009, and the west half retrofit to match the east half was finished in 2010.

At 6,350 feet, the bridge connecting Jefferson and Kitsap counties is the longest floating saltwater bridge in the world.

Much of the work for the project to retrofit and replace part of the bridge was performed on pontoons and required components to be floated out of a graving dock with only inches of clearance above the floor, the contractors said in a statement.

The team used the largest floating crane on the West Coast.