A construction consortium tasked with building a new bridge near Hoover Dam suffered a major setback in 2006 when four massive towers bearing a huge cable-mounted crane spanning the Black Canyon collapsed in heavy winds. The joint venture responsible for the Hoover Dam Bypass Colorado River Bridge project sought $74 million in damages and project-delay payments from the cableway crane’s owners, American Bridge, arguing before an arbitration panel that reconditioning of the system, elements of which dated to the 1960s, was not adequate for the demands of the crane, designed to carry loads as heavy as 50 tons and withstand 90 mph winds.

After 28 days of hearings over a three-month period, a three-member American Arbitration Association panel-James Chrisman, a full-time mediator and arbitrator in Las Vegas; Dennis Haney of Santoro, Driggs, Walch, Kearney, Holley & Thompson in Las Vegas; and William Turner, a Las Vegas mediator-ruled that the joint venture of Obayashi Corp. and PSM Construction had failed to support its claims that American Bridge was guilty of fraud, breach of contract and negligence, among other charges, and instead ordered the joint venture to pay the bridge company almost $5 million for its damaged and destroyed equipment and unpaid lease payments it was owed, plus undetermined interest on those payments.

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