Hoover bypass costs escalating

Monday, May 6, 2002 | 9:30 a.m.

The cost for building a new highway over the Colorado River near Hoover Dam is going up.

Lolene Terry, the Nevada manager for HDR, a national engineering firm, said the cost for the Hoover Dam bypass has gone up from $204 million to $240 million as the design process continues. Crews are now doing the final design work for building a bridge and highway at the site about a quarter-mile south of the dam.

The new cost estimate more realistically represents what will be needed to complete the massive construction project, she said.

The final cost could go higher. Some politicians have lobbied for more funding so that the project can be accelerated, opening before its scheduled spring 2007 date.

They cite the vulnerability of the two-lane highway over the dam to a terrorist attack or accident, a scenario that would sever the main transportation link between Phoenix and Las Vegas and could jeopardize, some fear, the dam itself.

Terry, whose company is one of several doing the design work for the bridge and the highway connection on the Nevada side, said the project is coming along about as quickly as possible now, although the agencies and companies involved are looking for ways to speed up the process.

"We're very much trying to accelerate the design process as much as we can," she said.

Terry spoke at a meeting of the American Public Works Association in Mesquite on Friday.

Scott Rawlins, of the Nevada Department of Transportation, also discussed the Hoover Dam bypass. Rawlins and Terry agreed that providing additional funding, probably in the form of incentives for companies that finish their tasks early, could speed the work.

That would be up to the political leaders who allocate the money for the federally funded project, they said.

"It's a question that Congress would have to resolve," Rawlins said.

Rawlins said about $130 million has been allocated. The rest is likely to come and will be needed before construction can begin, he added.