A construction accident at the four-year-old raw-water intake project at southern Nevada's Lake Mead, now a $526.6-million job, claimed its first fatality on June 11, when Thomas A. Turner, a union laborer and operating engineer, was struck in the head by a 200-psi jet stream of grout that included fist-sized rocks. Tunneling remained shut down at ENR press time on June 19.
The 44-year-old worker was securing a 20-ft-dia concrete ring, comprising six 17-ton precast segments, when one of the 20-ft-long segments jarred loose, opening a 4-in. by 2-ft gap. About 13.5 cu ft of grout shot through the opening, killing Turner and injuring another worker. A member of operating engineers' Local 12 and laborers' Local 872, Turner was in a 12-man crew working 600 ft underground when the accident occurred. His brother, Paul, also works on the project.