LAS VEGAS (AP) — The cap is off a massive "Third Straw" project to draw drinking water for Las Vegas from a shrinking Lake Mead.
Southern Nevada Water Authority spokesman Bronson Mack says an 8.6-ton steel cap was hoisted Wednesday to a barge from a massive lake-bottom structure designed somewhat like a big bathtub drain.
That completes a dangerous and sometimes frustrating six-year, $817 million Southern Nevada Water Authority project to keep taps flowing even if Lake Mead drops to its lowest levels. One worker died.
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The work has been done by Vegas Tunnel Constructors, a subsidiary of Italy-based Salini Impregilo.
The next step is completion in 2020 of a third pumping station at the Lake Mead reservoir.
That job will cost another $650 million.