Segment of River Mountain Loop Trail to Close for One Month

Date: August 8, 2008
Contact: Andrew Munoz, 702.293.8691

Boulder City, Nev. – From Aug. 18 through Sep. 18, 2008, a small segment of the River Mountains Loop Trail (RMLT) will close for improvements to accommodate construction activities associated with the Southern Nevada Water Authority’s (SNWA) third intake project. The trail segment to be closed is the section about one-half mile.  It is the section from the former site of Lake Mead Cruises (just north of Boulder Harbor on Lakeshore Road), up to the Nevada Department of Wildlife Fish Hatchery.

Improvements will include realignment of the trail to incorporate a culvert, routing RMLT traffic below Saddle Cove Road.  The culvert will be put in place to protect RMLT users from construction traffic related to the SNWA Third Intake project. The small section of the trail will remain closed for about four weeks.  The rest of the RMLT will not be affected by this work.

Background on the Intake No. 3:
The Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA) presently operates two water intakes at Saddle Island on the west shore of Lake Mead, approximately five miles northwest of Hoover Dam and approximately 20 miles east of the center of Las Vegas, within the Lake Mead National Recreation Area.  Severe drought has caused declining water levels in Lake Mead during recent years.  Long-term water supply modeling conducted by the Bureau of Reclamation indicates that the lake level may decline even further until the system recovers from the recent severe drought. The SNWA is constructing a third deep-water intake, Intake No. 3, in Lake Mead, and other associated project components to protect the existing water system capacity.