Cool pics - Hoover Dam bypass build

I just got this email, how cool would it be to be on that platform 900' above the water?!

Creeping closer inch by inch, 900 feet above the mighty Colorado River ,
the two sides of a $160 million bridge at the Hoover Dam 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 24 feet long

which have been cast on-site and are being lifted into place using an

improvised high-wire crane strung between temporary steel pylons.

The arches will eventually measure more than 1,000 feet 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

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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.

An extra note: The top of the white band of rock in Lake Mead is the

old waterline prior to the drought and development in the Las Vegas

area. It is over 100 feet above the current water level..

 

Nice pictures.

 

Nice pictures. I really like the third picture with the cables and the kayaks in the water below the bridge.

 

Wow that's awesome. No way in hell would I be caught working at that height!

 

Its amazing isn't it? Great post bud

 

Yeah I thought that was cool. I'm sure those kayakers are pleased to get themselves in such a great pic. I also liked the pic showing the platform between the 2 roadways. Man, that would be cool to walk across there.

 

sick!

 

always amazed by their ability to start something like that on two different sides and have them meet perfectly aligned in the middle.

 

I can't wait to drive over it

 

I want to drive over that.

 

Way cool!!

 

holy shit, that lake is low!!

100 ft above current level is prob only 30 ft above the level it should be

 

Yeah, the lake is extremely low . They have had to close some boat docks and move the ones left a few times, the launch ramps are in horrible condition also. The level dropped so quickly at times they couldn't put out warnings over the new rocks, boaters were told to use extreme caution. We sold our boat last winter, didn't spend much time on the lake this summer.

But I've seen various stages of progress on the bridge and it is pretty awesome .

 

awesome pics. that job is keeping alot of people working and thats cooler than the pics