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Tourists walk on the sidewalk along the Hoover Dam, with construction of the dam bypass bridge seen in the background Friday, Feb. 26, 2010.
By Kyle B. Hansen (contact) 
Thursday, May 20, 2010 | 2:55 p.m.
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Blasting on U.S. 93 near Hoover Dam is complete, marking a major milestone in the widening of 15 miles of the highway in Arizona and the construction of the Hoover Dam bypass bridge.
The Arizona Department of Transportation said construction crews performed 38 blasts using more than 172 tons of explosives, causing traffic delays since September on the main highway connecting Las Vegas and Phoenix.
“We would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for their patience as they traveled this stretch of highway over the last few months,” Arizona District Engineer Mike Kondelis said in a statement.
Work continues on the bridges, overlooks, a trailhead and wildlife crossings as Arizona creates a four-lane divided highway, expected to open later this year when the bypass bridge is complete.
Nevada has also widened part of U.S. 93 on its side of the dam in preparation for the bridge opening.
The bypass is expected to save a significant amount of travel time. A 6.3-mile trip that now averages nearly 17 minutes will be cut to 5.5 miles that can be traveled in six minutes, at 55 mph.
Travel times along that stretch — often congested with tourist traffic — can be more than 30 minutes.
Since Sept. 11, 2001, some traffic has been banned on the dam for security reasons. Before the Sept. 11 attack, semi-trailer trucks were about 18 percent of the traffic on the road. Since then, more than 2,100 trucks per day are being detoured 23 miles through Laughlin.
Those trucks are expected to return to U.S. 93 once the bridge opens.
The improvements to U.S. 93 also have increased interest in the possibility of building a new interstate route to connect Las Vegas and Phoenix.
Motorists traveling to Arizona from Las Vegas can get project updates by calling 1-888-887-0565 or visiting www.az511.gov.
Let's get that bridge open' Looks great.
This is a project which all of the country can be proud of much like the original Boulder Dam project was back in the thirties. It's a beautiful bridge and will bring people from around the world to marvel at it's wonders and views of Black Canyon and Boulder Dam (Refuse to use the name Hoover).
I hope they have check points on both sides of the bridge to stop potential terrorists.
If you go to their website, they have a live webcam you can check on the bridge's progress every day. Its pretty neat. Hopefully they get it open earlier than expected (rumor says in September)!
Hoover Dam and what's the name of the bridge?
Ought to be named the Jan Brewer Bridge in tribute to the gutsy governor of Arizona.
Looking forward to faster trips to Vegas. Driving thru the Dam right now cab be such a long trip for a very short road!
karinAZ,
You are so right!
Dam, that traffic jam!
Coming back from Phoenix, as I waited, and waited, and waited, I was thinking about what a farce the whole effort was. A whole lotta show.
BOULDER DAM BYPASS!!!!
Comment removed by moderator. ALL CAPS
Comment removed by moderator. ALL CAPS
The last major arterial roadway from the east to the Las vegas Valley is about to be completed, 50 yrs later. Boulder City needs to get off thier butts and decide what to do with the truck traffic.
This bridge is going to create far more problems than it is going to supposedly solve. The bridge itself is a great idea. It's the head in the sand planning that is going to result in added accidents and fatalities,bumper to bumper traffic going up an unprepared highway 93 (not to mention only seeing a semi's front grill in your rear mirror going down 93). The tractor-trailers used to turn over reguraly going both directions at Nevada Highway and 93, closing traffic in both directions for hours at a time. Nothing has been done to correct this problem and it will continue to be a major disaster until the Fed's and State committ to a bypass of Boulder City. Love the bridge, hate the non-existant planning after the bridge's completion.
The bridge is slated to be named the, "Mike O'Callaghan-Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge"
I don't like 18 wheelers going thru Boulder City and it has been VERY nice since 9/11 when they couldn't come thru. I dread the day when they return and nobody really cares except BC residents. Please build a bypass - THANKS...