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.
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.
