Galena bridge construction should resume by year's end

The head of the Nevada Department of Transportation told lawmakers Tuesday construction should resume on the Galena Creek Bridge in Pleasant Valley by the end of the year.

Work came to a halt in June after contractor Kraemer and Sons of Phoenix, Ariz., pulled out saying because of winds in the area, it wouldn't be safe to erect the huge truss structure that will support the roadway.

Jeff Fontaine told the Interim Finance Committee that NDOT hopes the bridge itself will be completed in 2008 and the freeway from Mount Rose Highway to Washoe Valley completed about two years after that.

Ways and Means Chairman Morse Arberry, D-Las Vegas, asked why NDOT let Kraemer out of the contract to do the bridge halfway through the work.

Fontaine said NDOT decided that was the quickest, cheapest and smartest way to get on with the project. He said there is always a risk if the issue ended up in court that the state would bear part of the blame.

And meanwhile, he said the cost of the project - more than $330 million including bridge and road - was escalating by as much as $100,000 a day because of double digit inflation in steel and concrete costs.

A new contract will be awarded by November and construction will resume as soon as possible after that, he said.