Dam work may slow Super Bowl traffic

Heather Rawlyk

Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2004 | 9:31 a.m.

Construction at the Nevada and Arizona approaches to Hoover Dam is expected to be finished by Sunday but it may still pose problems for some of the many people expected to be driving into Southern Nevada from Arizona on the days leading up to the Super Bowl.

Since Jan. 18, drivers have encountered traffic delays from 8 p.m. until 6 a.m., due to lane restrictions resulting from road construction near the dam.

Construction workers have been working nightly, installing hydraulic barrades, which can be triggered to pop up to halt any motorist who refuses to stop at the security checkpoints, Security Manager Ken Yanni said.

Once the button is pushed, warning lights and rails, similar to railroad crossings, will be flashed to warn drivers to stop ahead. The 4-foot barracades will pop up from the road, in both lanes to stop anyone suspicious from passing.

The barracades will be in place by Sunday morning, right on schedule, Yanni said.

Any Super Bowl partiers and other traffic traveling over the dam from 8 p.m. and 6 a.m. may encounter some relatively short delays because during those hours traffic will be restricted to only one lane, Yanni said.

And although traffic lanes through the daylight hours will remain open in both directions, they will still be subject to intermittent closure to allow construction to pass, Yanni said.

"It is really the intermittent closures that cause the most traffic," he said.