Summary

On September 2, 2014, Matthew Williams, former owner of Clear Span Construction Products, LLC (Clear Span), was sentenced in U.S. District Court, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to 4 months home confinement, 48 months probation, and ordered to pay $29,600 in restitution to 5 Professional Engineers (P.E.). 

Williams previously pleaded guilty to wire fraud for his role in the falsification of engineering documents related to Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) funded construction projects between July 2008 and April 2012. Clear Span manufactured stay-in-place (SIP) metal bridge deck forms that were placed between either structural steel or pre-stressed concrete bridge girders.   

Williams admitted that on multiple occasions and without authorization, he forged or affixed the seal and signature of unwitting P.E.’s on bridge plans and transmitted these engineering documents to prime contractors on the FHWA funded projects. The investigation revealed that Williams submitted over 500 falsified documents on more than 75 federal and state funded highway projects in 13 states.     

We conducted this investigation with the Federal Bureau of Investigation with assistance from the FHWA.