What happens in Vegas gets posted on my blog

As mentioned, Roadguy was in Utah and Las Vegas last weekend, and of course there were plenty of eye-grabbers along the streets and highways. Here's one of the first sights after picking up the rental car in Sin City:

We fled town upon arrival, crossing dozens of miles of flat desert, then came to a spot where the highway engineers found a way to cram a four-lane freeway through a narrow canyon:

Come to think of it, the Crosstown Commons has a similar feel right now.

Vegas may be wildly sprawling, but it turns out that mass transit is alive and well in southwestern Utah. Zion National Park, which is basically served by a two-lane dead-end road, puts everybody on shuttle buses during the busy season, which ended about two weeks ago. Here's an informative/commemorative plaque that describes the pre-transit nightmare:

Inside the park, drivers can enjoy this quite literal version of bridge and tunnel:

The mile-long, unlighted tunnel was carved in the 1930s and is so narrow that workers on either end stop traffic whenever a camper or RV needs to go through -- drivers of those vehicles are instructed to go right down the middle, where the tunnel is tallest. Bikes and pedestrians are banned.

The next day we were back in the Silver State, where there's a commemorative plate not available in Minnesota:

Yes, it's a tribute to the Atomic Testing Museum. No word on whether the driver had three eyes.

Also discovered while in the car:

This may be widely available on satellite systems, but the fact that it was playing "Viva Las Vegas" when we first tuned in seemed both appropriate and eerie.

No Roadguy vacation is complete without a major infrastructure pilgrimage, so it was off to Hoover Dam, the top of which currently carries the main highway between Las Vegas and Arizona. The two-lane road is crazy-congested  a lot of the time, so just downstream -- and way up high -- transportation officials are building this: 

The arch was recently completed and will eventually carry a four-lane highway, at which time the road that sits atop the dam will be closed to through traffic. I took the photo above while standing on the dam, which is 660 feet tall; the bridge is 900 feet above the river. If you look closely at the next photo, you can check out the stairs that workers climb:

The wooden box that looks like a coffin, visible just above the car at the center, was labeled thus:

I'm just glad it wasn't in use. (A coincidence of note: the pricetag on the bridge is $234 million -- the exact construction cost of the new 35W bridge.) Much cooler bridge photos are here.

Our final photo, from a Vegas pedestrian mall called the Fremont Street Experience, is of a traffic control device designed to keep people out of pine boxes:

On the left is the traditional hand and countdown of seconds left while crossing. The big illuminated sign tells you how many seconds until it's safe to cross -- not a bad idea in a town full of people who can't wait to party.