Creeping closer inch by inch – 900ft above the mighty Colorado River – the two sides of a $160 million bridge at the Hoover Dam in America slowly take shape.
The bridge will carry a new section of US Route 93 past the bottleneck of the old road which can be seen twisting and winding around and across the dam itself.
When complete, it will provide a new link between the states of Nevada and Arizona. In an incredible feat of engineering, the road will be supported on the two massive concrete arches which jut out of the rock face.
The arches are made up of 53 individual sections – each 24ft long – which have been cast on-site and are being lifted into place using an improvised high-wire crane strung between temporary steel pylons.
Spectacular: The new Hoover Dam bypass
The arches will eventually measure more than 1,000ft across. At the moment, the structure looks like a traditional suspension bridge. But once the arches are complete, the suspending cables on each side will be removed.
Extra vertical columns will then be installed on the arches to carry the road. The bridge has become known as the Hoover Dam bypass, although it is officially called the Mike O'Callaghan-Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge, after a former governor of Nevada and an American Football player from Arizona who joined the US Army and was killed in Afghanistan.
Work on the bridge started in 2005 and should finish next year. An estimated 17,000 cars and trucks will cross it every day.
The dam was started in 1931 and used enough concrete to build a road from New York to San Francisco.
The stretch of water it created, Lake Mead, is 110 miles long and took six years to fill.
The original road was opened at the same time as the famous dam in 1936.
Yay! Now I have an excuse to repeat my "Southwest Tour 2002."
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting that everything I read about this new bridge never mentions that one of the reasons it was funded was for national security reasons. The dam is considered to be a potential terrorist target.
ReplyDeleteI love this sh!?. What an awesome undertaking! and to think somebody had to sit and think how much this would cost before starting!
ReplyDeleteI used to live in the area and found it necessary to occasionally drive from Las Vegas down US-93 to Kingman, AZ.
ReplyDeletePrior to 9-11, driving this road, with its hair-pin curves before and after the Dam, was a pain. After 9-11 it was a Royal pain.
Besides the obvious national security reasons (correctly pointed out by 1:07 PM) this will be the greatest thing since sliced bread for truckers and frequent travelers on US-93. It is money well spent.
Their official web site (http://www.hooverdambypass.org/) also has maps that show that besides the bridge, the road realignment also includes two other smaller bridges and a tunnel.