The Hoover Dam Bypass Project

Hoover Dam Bypass Now Open!

The Federal Highway Administration, in conjunction with the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) and the Nevada Department of Transportation (NDOT), officially opened the new segment of US 93, formally known as the Hoover Dam Bypass. Traffic began flowing on Tuesday night, October 19, 2010.

Update on Hoover Dam ByPass

Hallelujah, Kingman is getting an early Christmas present. Dave Zanetell, project manager for the Hoover Dam ByPass Project, had announced a target date of late fall 2010 to open the eagerly awaited bypass that will cut an hour off the travel time between Kingman and Las Vegas. Well, that date has come; and traffic began flowing on Tuesday night, October 19, 2010.
The support-arch for the bridge (named MikeO'Callaghan-Pat Tillman Memorial) is complete and rises approximately 900 feet above the Colorado River. This project has taken almost 20 years from conception to the awaited completion.
The project has seen many delays, but it has finally come to completion! Good news for Kingman.

The bridge will carry a new section of US Route 93 past the bottleneck of the old road which can be 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 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.

Creeping closer... inch by inch, 900ft above the mighty Colorado River, the two sides of a $160million 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.

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.

The joint venture contractor building the River Bridge, Obayashi Corporation and PSM Construction USA, Inc., is advancing construction of the 1,060 foot twin-rib concrete arch. The JV completed the design, fabrication and erection of the new highline system in January 2008. The system was developed specifically for this site and project requirements. Re-establishing the cableway system was a critical milestone to complete the project. Recently, the Contractor completed construction of steel tub girders and deck on the approach spans, and cast the first several segments at the end of each arch using a traveling form system. Upcoming work includes erecting two precast, segmental temporary towers at the ends of the approach span decks to anchor the cable support system for continued arch construction. Construction of the arch is expected to take approximately 14 months with completion scheduled in September 2009. Once the arch is complete and self-supporting, the cables and tower will be removed, and columns, pier caps and deck structure will be built on top of the arch completing the roadway.

The fourth phase of the Hoover Dam Bypass project is complete. The interim surfacing project was awarded to Las Vegas Paving Corporation in December 2007 was completed in June 2008. The project includes asphalt paving and guardrail on approximately 75% of the approach project length. Completion of the project minimizes the amount of remaining work to be done after the River Bridge is completed. The final project to open the bypass will include the short sections of remaining roadway tie-ins to the River Bridge and U.S. 93, as well as signing, striping, barrier, and pedestrian facilities on the entire bypass.

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) awarded a $7 million surfacing project to Las Vegas Paving Corporation of Las Vegas Nevada in December 2007. The paving project includes over 60,000 tons aggregate base, 45,000 tons hot asphalt concrete pavement and nearly 18,000 lineal feet of guardrail. The project is complete.

This project was accelerated in order to finalize paving and guardrail throughout a majority of the Bypass Approach roadways and take advantage of current construction materials prices and minimize any future increases that may result from delays associated with the contractor's crane collapse that occurred during construction of the River Bridge. Advancing this roadway surfacing project ensured continued progress on the Bypass and minimized the remaining work to be done after the River Bridge is completed - with the ultimate goal of expediting the final opening of the Bypass.

Once the River Bridge nears completion, a final contract will be awarded to pave the short sections of remaining roadway and the roadway tie-ins at U.S. 93, as well as complete final signing, striping, barrier, and pedestrian facilities. It is estimated that this final contract will cost approximately $8 million and will be advertised in late 2009. The total cost to complete the Hoover Dam Bypass remains unchanged at $240 million and is consistent with the original 2001 estimate.

The construction contract for the Colorado River Bridge, was awarded to the joint venture partnership of Obayashi Corporation and PSM Construction USA, Inc., in October of 2004 for $114M. Construction began in early 2005 and is expected to be completed in 2010. When completed, the 2,000 foot-long Colorado River Bridge will span the Black Canyon (about 1,600 feet south of the Hoover Dam), connecting the Arizona and Nevada Approach highways nearly 900-feet above the Colorado River. The construction requirements and challenges are as difficult as any in the world.

As of November 2008, the joint venture contractor has completed over $78M worth of construction. Major milestone work complete includes the abutments, approach columns, girders and deck, and arch skewback footings. A number of the arch segments have been cast using a temporary form traveler system. The contractor has established a new cableway system developed specifically for this project and site. The cable crane system spanning the canyon delivers materials and equipment used in constructing the bridge. Other completed work includes the precast segments for the bridge columns which will support the roadway on the arch. The arch is now almost 40% complete, and on track for closure in the third quarter of 2009.

Upcoming work will include continued of the cast-in-place concrete arch over the Colorado River. Completion of the arch requires construction of temporary stay towers which will support the arch until it is closed in the middle. This is scheduled for September 2009.

Another milestone in the construction of the Hoover Dam Bypass was completion of phase two, the Nevada Approach project in November 2005. Edward Kraemer & Sons, Inc., the contractor for the Nevada Approach project, completed this $30.1 million roadway improvement from Nevada U.S. 93 to the new Colorado River Bridge crossing nearly two months ahead of schedule.

Construction of the Nevada Approach, began in October 2003, and within its short 24-month duration, the contractor constructed 2.11 miles of new four-lane highway alignment including six new bridges, a new traffic interchange at U.S. 93 near the Hacienda Casino, retaining walls, wildlife crossings, and a 1.6 mile extension of the River Mountain River Loop hiking trail. To accomplish this feat, the contractor moved over 1.5 million cubic yards of blasted rock material, placed 2.8 million pounds of reinforcing steel, and poured over 12,000 cubic yards of structural concrete.

Phase One of the Bypass was finished in December 2004. Completion of the Sugarloaf Mountain Bridge signified the end of construction on the Arizona Approach project. The project involved building a connection between U.S. 93 and the Colorado River Bridge. Major components of the $21.5 million project include nearly two miles of four-lane roadway, a 900-foot bridge on the east side of Sugarloaf Mountain, a new traffic interchange at U.S. 93 and Kingman Wash Road, wildlife crossings, trail access parking, improved drainage and rock staining. The joint venture contractor, R. E. Monks Construction and Vastco Inc, were responsible for construction activities on the Arizona Approach. The project was completed on time.