Spencer Street bridge, closed by 1999 flood, is reopened

Wednesday, June 26, 2002 | 9:18 a.m.

An important neighborhood bridge is back in business and challenging Mother Nature to bring on the rain after a special ceremony Tuesday celebrating its reopening.

The Spencer Street bridge was one of several casualties when a 100-year flood hit the Las Vegas Valley three years ago. The bridge had provided access to the Boulevard Mall from the neighborhood to the west.

The 35-foot clear-span bridge is the first phase of a $4.3 million flood control effort to improve the Flamingo Wash from Maryland Parkway to Spencer Street. Workers are still completing work to line the channel upstream from the bridge and install a new storm drain system downstream.

A sudden flush of rain into the valley July 8, 1999, caused the Flamingo Wash to overflow its banks, demolish the Spencer Street bridge and erode the channel banks. One person died in the flash floods that caused $20.5 million in damage.

The finished project at Spencer Street will protect the half-square-mile of land surrounding the channel.

The area's representative, County Commissioner Myrna Williams, helped speed up the bridge's construction by securing money for the Regional Flood Control District project.

"The history of flooding common to this area will be significantly reduced as a result of the new bridge and the completion of the remaining improvements," Williams said.