Defective Concrete is Being Used on Las Vegas Airport Runway

It is not your everyday construction project.

"Not a curb, not a sidewalk, not a slab on grade, this is a runway tarmac. This is heavy equipment on it and people," explained John Zedler.

They are not building a runway, but it has to be as safe and as strong for planes to taxi and park.

"This is very serious. This is an airport. You got people all over the world coming to Las Vegas," said John.

John Zedler knows concrete.

"From my notes, maybe 10% of it was right and 90% of it was wrong," explained John.

He is a licensed, certified concrete inspector who worked for Western Technologies on two airport construction sites.

Concrete has to meet specifications including numeric field tests to ensure it is strong enough, hard enough and structurally sound.

"The reason why we have those specifications is because you could get structural fractures, movement and a lot of other things," said John.

Each cement truck contains about 10 yards of concrete and according to John's field journal, load after load was failing the tests.

Even so, he says contractors knowingly poured about 8 football fields worth of unsafe concrete at McCarran International Airport.

"I would call out the actual number. The gentleman writing down the field notes on the paperwork would actually change it to make it pass," said John.

If they have to pull concrete out and do it again, it costs a ton of time and time, as they say, is money.

Contact 13 obtained John's field notes and the reports Western Technologies gave to the Department of Aviation.

Time after time, the paperwork does not match up.

In some cases, the failing number is scratched out and a passing one is written over it.

"It is not right. I told my supervisor. I told my company. I have even spoke with the other contractors and sub-contractors out there," said John.

But he says they just blew it off and started taking work away from him.