Dive Summary:

• After three years and many setbacks, workers completed drilling the Southern Nevada Water Authority's new water intake at Lake Mead, Nevada.
• The $52 million project consisted of blasting out a 400 foot underground tunnel, which will join two straws that are already in place.
• Renda Pacific, the contractor for the tunnel, carried out 73,000 cubic yards of solid rock, which was removed using explosives and with drills inching their way into the surface.

From the article:

"The $817 million third intake will keep that water flowing even if the lake shrinks low enough to shut down one of the community’s existing intake pipes."

"The “high groundwater flow” and unstable rock delayed completion of the tunnel by 18 months and increased costs by $5 million and counting."

"Though excavation is now finished on the connector tunnel, the Renda Pacific crew has one more weighty task to perform. Within the next few months, a steel pipe 20 feet long and 16 feet in diameter must be lowered down the access shaft and cemented in place at the bottom."