Las Vegas Sun

March 19, 2024

Contractor gets OK to resume tunneling for water intake project at Lake Mead

Two weeks after an accident 600 feet below Lake Mead left one worker dead, the Nevada Occupational Health and Safety Administration has given the go-ahead to resume tunneling activities for the construction of a third water intake, the Southern Nevada Water Authority said in a statement Tuesday afternoon.

Henderson resident Thomas Albert Turner, 44, was killed June 11 while he was working as part of a crew in a tunnel beneath Lake Mead.

According to officials, Turner was helping erect one of a series of large concrete rings that will line the tunnel when one of the rings slipped, ejecting a pressurized stream of dirt, rocks and grout that struck him in the head.

One other worker was injured in the accident, and tunneling activities were suspended while OSHA investigated.

The project’s contractor, Vegas Tunnel Constructors, is expected to begin tunneling operations again within the next few days, the statement said.

SNWA spokesman J.C. Davis said Vegas Tunnel Constructors was required to submit a plan to OSHA for approval that outlined changes to procedures that will be taken to avoid another similar accident. The primary changes, he said, involve adding more restraints to the concrete rings while they’re being erected to prevent them from slipping.

The June 11 accident was the first fatality involving an industrial accident at the troubled $800 million construction project to build a third intake “straw” at Lake Mead, which has been beset by delays and increased costs since construction began in 2009.

The project was started while Southern Nevada struggled through a decade of drought, and plunging lake levels threatened to drop below the existing two intakes at the lake drilled at shallower depths.

Las Vegas depends on the Colorado River reservoir for about 90 percent of its drinking water.

The third intake would allow the region to continue drawing water from the lake, even as water levels continue to drop.

In July 2010, work on a tunnel that would carry water from the straw into the valley’s water system was slowed when crews struck a geographical fault, releasing water and muck into the construction area. Attempts were made to stabilize the fault with grout, but after two more leaks, that tunnel was abandoned and crews began excavating a different direction.

A separate access tunnel also being built as part of the project encountered problems last month when unexpected amounts of water began seeping into the tunnel.

The third intake project was initially scheduled to be finished in 2013, but its completion date has been pushed back until 2014. The accident earlier this month is not expected to affect the project’s completion date, SNWA officials said.

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