Hoover Dam represented the greatest challenge of Bechtel’s history in the early 1930s. It was the largest civil engineering project in the history of the United States, and a dam that would control one of the most powerful rivers in the world. Standing 726 feet high, 1,200 feet across the crest, and 660 feet thick at its base, Hoover Dam placed huge logistical requirements on Bechtel and its associates: 3.7 million cubic yards of rock to excavate, 45 million pounds of pipe and structural steel to erect, 4.4 million cubic yards of concrete to pour. Remarkably, the entire project was completed under budget and two years ahead of schedule. Although Bechtel has since built bigger dams, none will ever be quite as important, to either the company or the country. It was Bechtel’s first megaproject and it shaped the company’s ambitions forever.
Details
Construction of Hoover Dam started in 1931, during the depths of the Depression. The plan was to harness the Colorado River at Black Canyon on the Arizona-Nevada border, just southeast of Las Vegas. The dam would end unpredictable flooding in California’s Imperial Valley and furnish electricity for Arizona, Nevada, and southern California. It would also provide thousands of jobs. The firm the federal government selected for the assignment was a consortium of Western contractors called Six Companies, Inc., which included W.A. Bechtel Co. Hoover Dam was the largest civil engineering project in United States history, and it was among the riskiest. Engineers diverted the powerful Colorado River with more than 3 miles of 50-foot tunnels, driven straight through the canyon walls. Then they poured millions of cubic yards of concrete in a series of smaller blocks, cooled by refrigerated tubing, to prevent the setting concrete from generating so much heat that it would crack the dam. In addition, they managed an immense assembly of manpower in the middle of an unforgiving desert.
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