900ft above the mighty Colorado River there is a spectacular new bridge that 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.
Opening October 2010, 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 measure more than 1,000ft across. During construction, the structure looked like a traditional suspension bridge. But now that the arches are complete, the suspending cables on each side have been removed.
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.
–guntherize on YouTube
Tags: Arizona, AZ, Guntherize, Hoover Dam, Nevada, NV, YouTube
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