A four-year-long legal spat over Hoover Dam Bridge project's collapsed cableways has come to a close with a private settlement stemming from an April 20 arbitration ruling. On Sept. 15, 2006, a refurbished 42-year-old cableway system leased from American Bridge Co., Coraopolis, Penn., toppled over during 50-mph winds, bringing construction to a halt and delaying completion by two years. The 1,900-ft-long, 277-ft-deep twin-rib arched bridge will now open in early November.
In 2005, a general contracting joint venture led by Obayashi Corp., San Francisco, with PSM Construction USA Inc., Brisbane, Calif., signed a two-year, $105,000-a-month lease to use two pairs of 330-ft-tall lattice-framed towers with 2,500-ft of 3-in-dia. cableway strung between them over the Black Canyon, roughly a quarter-mile downstream from Hoover Dam. The high lines, as workers call them, function like a heavy-duty clothes line that shuttle 104 precast bridge segments into place 890 ft over the Colorado River.