If you’ve driven over the Hoover Dam, you know it’s not the most relaxing thing you’ve ever done. Far from it. The drive is torturously slow, usually with the traffic backed up for as far as the eye can see.
But all that’s changing. The Mike O’Callaghan-Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge is about to reach a milestone event, with the final piece of the supporting concrete arch to be placed on the $240 million bypass project by the second week of August, thanks to the hard work of some 1,200 construction workers and 300 engineers that have battled Southern Nevada’s extreme heat and high winds. 
Spanning 1,900 feet across the Black Canyon just south of the dam, the 1,060-foot arch will be the longest in the Western Hemisphere. In two months, after the arch is completed, the temporary cables will be removed.
When the whole schmazel is complete in late 2010, it will provide for four lanes of traffic 900 feet above the Colorado River, providing a more convenient and much safer way to traverse the Black Canyon and travel between Arizona and Nevada.
Vegas Backstage Access (VBA) 