Construction Projects Boon to IBEW Workers in Nevada

April 2001 IBEW Journal

As one of the fastest-growing communities in the country, Las Vegas has launched an ambitious effort to keep pace with increased demand on its infrastructure.

And IBEW workers are on the front line of the Southern Nevada Water Authoritys capital improvement plan a multifaceted, multimillion dollar project to move water through the desert to thirsty consumers.

One of the largest components of the project is the construction of the River Mountains Water Treatment Facility. The four-year, $177 million civil engineering feat, now 78 percent complete, has meant a boon for IBEW Local 357.

The scope, scale and industrial nature of the construction put a premium on electrical workers, said Local 357 Assistant Business Manager David Jones. Brother Jones estimates that on any given day, an average of 100 local and traveling members can be found on the 400-acre site, 50 miles east of Las Vegas.

Brother Jones said IBEW members and apprentices have a unique opportunity on the project to obtain industrial construction experience, versus the commercial work that represents the majority of the available work. The projects 11 pumping stations operate with high-horsepower motors and present a high-voltage challenge to electrical workers. The valve controls and advanced station-to-station systems using fiberoptic lines keep communications specialists busy.

Local 357 workers are also erecting the power delivery network for the treatment facility, constructing distribution lines and sub-stations. The work has required the use of helicopters to build towers and string cables. The four-year project is proceeding ahead of schedule, under budget and with a safety incidence record half that of the national average, Brother Jones said.

Also in the region, construction continues on the expansion of the Alfred Smith Water Treatment Plant, four miles from the famed Hoover Dam (see "Pure Water in the Desert," p. 4, IBEW Journal, December 1999). When complete, the plant will use a process called "ozone oxidation" to purify water through the introduction of high voltage electricity.

The entire South Nevada Water Authority capital improvement plan, funded in part by a sales tax increase, is slated for completion in 2017. The public works project is being performed under a 1996 Project Labor Agreement.

Eventually, the increased demand on other infrastructure segments could translate into even more jobs for IBEW workers in Las Vegas, with another power plant currently under discussion, Brother Jones said.