Saturday - October 16, 2010

Don’t Look Down

LAS VEGAS – A soaring bypass bridge high above the Colorado River near Hoover Dam is set to open after nearly eight years and $240 million worth of work.

The 1,900-foot engineering wonder perched 890 feet above the water is expected to drastically cut travel time along the main route between Las Vegas and Phoenix, as motorists will no longer have to make their way across the dam and its security checkpoints at a snail’s pace.

Cars previously were routed across Hoover Dam to cross the border between Arizona and Nevada, and checkpoints added after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, often caused miles-long backups of traffic. Federal officials also heavily restricted the types of vehicles and cargo that could cross the dam, sending semis and other large vehicles an extra 23 miles through the resort town of Laughlin.

The new bridge allows travelers to bypass the dam much more quickly and with no checkpoints. The U.S. Department of Transportation estimates it will cut at least 30 minutes from the trip.

Those going to the dam will no longer be able to pass over it to cross the border by car, though it will remain open as a tourist attraction.

It’s the longest bridge built with concrete arches in the western hemisphere, according to the Transportation Department. The arches measure 1,060 feet.

Nearly 900 feet up in the air? Holy cow. And with the awesomeness of the Hoover Damn right next to it. That’s no distraction, no sir. For the sake of the folks driving this new wonder, I hope the sides of the bridge are solid walls about 9 feet tall. So you can’t see anything, and you just have to drive the quarter mile corridor. And not watch the damn instead of the road, and not worry about how far down it is, and not even think that there are no wires holding this bridge up. Yikes.

Posted by Drew458     on 10/16/2010 at 09:03 AM   
Filed Under: • Architecture •  
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It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.

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