Congressman backs dam bypass

Erin Neff

Monday, March 25, 2002 | 9:38 a.m.

House Transportation Committee Chairman Don Young, R-Alaska, supports expediting funding for a Hoover Dam bypass in light of terrorism concerns, he says.

"If I were a terrorist the first thing I'd blow up is the Panama Canal," Young said Friday during a stop in Las Vegas for a convention. "The next thing I'd hit is Hoover Dam."

Young said he supports allocating $115 million in federal funds to construct a new bridge across the Colorado River about a mile downriver from Hoover Dam. "If I had a say in it, I'd say no trucks ever on that dam again," Young said.

After the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, Hoover Dam was closed to truck traffic. Currently trucks with local permits are allowed to cross the dam, but other trucks are diverted to Laughlin to cross the river.

The planned Hoover Dam bypass is scheduled to be completed in 2007, but state officials are hoping to get the bridge built by 2005 because of terrorist concerns, and to coincide with the dam's centennial celebration.

"If you're really a good explosives man there's a key point in the dam where you could bring it down," Young said. "There is no recovery from that."

Young said if anything happened to the dam, power and water sources for so many people would be immediately hurt, causing chaos.