Report: Two-lane stretch over Hoover Dam accident waiting to happen

The Federal Highway Administration says the current, narrow two-lane highway over the dam is an accident waiting to happen. The agency is offering four options - leave things the way they are or build a new bridge across the Colorado River or Lake Mead at one of three points.

The agency is concerned that continued use of the winding narrow road will lead to fatal accidents and problems such as dam damage, contamination of Lake Mead or the Colorado River or the possible interruption of power and water supplies to the Southwest.

"The potential for a catastrophe involving vehicles containing hazardous materials may reasonably be expected to increase with increasing traffic volume," officials said in a draft environmental impact statement.

The study does not endorse any of the four alternatives, nor does it explicitly rule out the possibility of maintaining the current route. But a host of factors cited in the document weighs against keeping the existing road as the major crossing point for U.S Highway 93.

As early as 1965, federal authorities recognized problems created by the hairpin turns, narrow roadway, inadequate shoulder and poor sight-lines. Compounding this, the section of U.S. 93 that passes over Hoover Dam reached its traffic-carrying capacity about seven years ago.

Statistics in the report show the accident rate within a mile of the dam is more than three times the average for similarly classified roads in Nevada. That figure is more worrisome given the nature of some of the materials hauled over the dam - explosives, flammable fuels, radioactive materials and caustic chemicals.

The report warns of a potential conflagration of a size and scope normally associated with disaster movies. These risks could be reduced by giving commercial and passenger vehicles a safer path over the Colorado River.

Three sites are under consideration, all of which would connect to U.S. 93 about one-quarter mile east of the Gold Strike hotel-casino. Each would take about five years to complete.

The Promontory Point alternative would involve building a bridge 2,200 feet long that would cross Lake Mead about 1,000 feet upstream of the Hoover Dam. The project would cost about $204 million.

In the Sugarloaf Mountain alternative, a bridge 1,900 feet long would cross the Colorado River about 1,500 feet downstream from the dam. This plan would cost about $198 million.

The Gold Strike Canyon alternative would cross the river about a mile downstream from the dam. It would feature a bridge 1,700 feet long and cost about $215 million.

The draft report, produced by a project team that includes federal, Arizona and Nevada agencies, does not identify any environmental factors that would exclude or favor any of the three routes.

Terry Haussler, Hoover Dam bypass project manager for the highway administration, said officials typically would have developed a preferred solution by this stage of a project. No such consensus exists in this case, he said.

Haussler said a final decision is scheduled to be made in April 1999. Funding then becomes the key issue.

The federal government has allocated $41 million of the estimated $200 million that will be required for the project. Arizona and Nevada are required to pitch in a combined $8 million.

The two states now are conducting a financing study that includes the feasibility of using tolls.

"Their objective is to not put more state money into this project," Haussler said.

archive