Vegas Day Tripping with Flipchip...Boulder Dam

Boulder Dam Thursday afternoon under a rare cloudy sky.

I decided to take a day trip, actually more of a half-day trip since the famous landmark is only 30 miles out of Las Vegas. To Hoover/Boulder Dam. The reason for the visit was to see the progress on the long awaited Boulder Dam bypass highway. The project is now entering into the actual bridge building phase with both approaches, Arizona and Nevada, almost complete. This sky high arched bridge will span the Colorado River just below 70 year old Boulder Dam and provide motorists with an alternative to negotiating the throngs of tourist always crowding onto the twisting, two lane road that winds down into the canyon and across the narrow top of the Boulder Dam before climbing hairpin switchbacks up and out.

The Boulder Dam bypass project is incredible in its’ enormity alone. Shyswcraper size concrete support columns rising hundreds of feet into the sky from some of the most inhospitable terrain in the world. When completed the world’s longest single arch bridge will span 1,900 feet across Black Canyon at a height of 890 feet (about a ninety story building) above the Colorado River down below. The dam bypass will be located only a quarter of a mile below the dam.

Proposed more than ten years ago, the project was shelved for a decade after environmentalist objected, then the residents of Boulder City questioned the impact the bypass would have on their generally quiet lifestyles and the results was lost funding. Following the terrorist attack of 9/11 the existing highway across the top of the dam was restricted to auto traffic leaving commercial trucks and buses with a long detour through Laughlin. The solution was to resurrect the dam bypass. Work began in 2005 when federal funding became available. The cost of the project is in excess of $200 million and completion is forecast for 2008.

photo by FlipChip/LasVegasVegas.com


Approach for the bridge on the Arizona side of the Colorado River.

The Boulder Dam bypass is expected to create a real estate housing boom in the northwest corner of Arizona after the highway makes the land an easy half hour commute to Vegas. The following photos offer some views of the progress on the massive construction project. Las Vegas visitors are encouraged to take the easy drive to Histroric Boulder Dam and see first hand the building of a modern engineering spectacle. It’s difficult to show the scale of this leviathan using size limited photos; you really need to be there and see it for yourself.

Final approach for the bridge on the Nevada side of the Colorado River

The narrow two lane US-93 winds around the top of Boulder Dam.

A view of the Arizona side final approach.

Close up view of work on the final approach work from the Arizona side.

Another view of the Nevada side.

Two large towers have been erected on both sides of the canyon joined by heavy cable supporting the cranes that will be used to build the bridge.

Boulder Dam

After a day of touring Boulder Dam stop at the Hacienda Casino Hotel just inside Nevada.

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