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Dec. 31, 2007
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

8.5-MILE STRETCH: Freeway will link capital, interstate

Drive will feature spectacular valley views

By SEAN WHALEY
REVIEW-JOURNAL CAPITAL BUREAU
ON THE WEB
For more details on the Interstate 580 project, go to the Nevada Department of Transportation Web site
freewayextension.com


Cranes place steel high above the ground on the Interstate 580 project south of Reno.
Photos by Cathleen Allison/Special to the Review-Journal



Workers construct a concrete tunnel for Galena Creek to flow through as part of the Interstate 580 freeway project. The ravine will be filled to allow construction of a bridge over the creek.



Brad Durski resident engineer on the Interstate 580 project in Northern Nevada, talks about the project being built next to Pleasant Valley.

CARSON CITY -- One of the most complex and challenging road construction projects in Nevada history is under way to link the capital city to the nationwide interstate freeway system.

The 8.5-mile stretch of the four-lane freeway from Reno south to the Washoe Valley is the final piece of a project that has been in the planning stages for decades.

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    • The route will feature spectacular views of the Pleasant and Washoe valleys and a drive over what will be the longest concrete cathedral arch main span in the United States.

    On a recent tour of the project, officials with the Nevada Department of Transportation talked about the issues involved in building a stretch of freeway that for much of the way is along a mountainside.

    About 150 workers with the main contractor Fisher Sand & Gravel Co. and its subcontractor have been busy all along the route, crushing basalt rock found on the site for concrete, doing preparatory work for the biggest span over Galena Creek and working on other bridges. They are about 25 percent of the way through the job.

    Nine bridges make up much of the project, which is being built at a total cost of $393 million. With about $50 million for right-of-way costs and another $50 million paid to a previous contractor that walked away over safety concerns, the total cost is about $500 million.

    When complete in mid-2011, the freeway segment will connect Carson City to the interstate system. The city is one of the few remaining state capitals in the nation that does not have such a link. Reno and the capital city now are linked by U.S. Highway 395.

    Transportation Department Resident Engineer Brad Durski said he and his crew of 50 are enjoying the challenge of overseeing such a complex project. One element of the job will require the contractor to move 4 million cubic yards of mountainside to create the freeway path.

    "We're working 10 hours a day," he said. "It's something we will be able to point to and tell our grandkids about."

    But the final segment is not coming about without problems and challenges.

    A contractor hired to construct the 1,719-foot-long concrete Galena Creek bridge, with its 690-foot arch, and three of the other smaller bridges walked off the project in May 2006 citing safety concerns.

    The concerns, countered in studies offered by the Transportation Department, centered on the wind danger to workers building the Galena Creek Bridge, which will stand more than 300 feet above the tiny stream, which tumbles east out of the Sierra Nevada.

    Rather than engage in a potentially protracted legal fight and further delay the project, the state Transportation Board, led by then-Gov. Kenny Guinn, worked out a resolution with the company, Edward Kraemer & Sons, letting it walk away. The board then rebid the project.

    In November 2006, the board awarded a new contract to Fisher to complete the Galena Creek Bridge, the other bridges and the entire stretch of freeway at a cost of $393 million. The work stared in early 2007.

    Durski said the Interstate 580 project has a number of elements that make it a challenge, including the size and height of the Galena Creek bridge, moving tons of dirt off the side of the mountain and geothermal activity along a part of the route.

    The safety concerns expressed by the original contractor about building the Galena Creek bridge have been circumvented in a unique way by the new contractor, he said. Rather than use cranes to erect the structure over the void of the Galena Creek canyon, Fisher and its bridge subcontractor, CC Myers Inc., are using a different approach.

    A reinforced concrete tunnel is being constructed over the part of the creek directly below where the bridge will be built. The tunnel will be covered with 380,000 cubic yards of earth taken from elsewhere along the freeway alignment, filling the canyon to a point where a safer and more traditional process can be used to build the structure.

    The tunnel will be dismantled, the fill removed, and the creek area will be restored after the project is complete.

    Drivers probably will face their own challenges when the new piece of road opens -- from wind, snow and ice.

    But the conditions have been taken into account in the planning, said department spokesman Scott Magruder. Automatic deicing equipment will be installed on four of the bridges, and a wind warning system will be used to tell motorists driving high-profile vehicles when they will be required to take the old road instead.

    The deicing equipment, at a cost of $1 million per bridge, will spray a non-harmful saline solution on the spans when they hit a certain temperature. The cost of this driver safety feature is part of the overall contract.

    Wind warnings, indicated with flashing yellow signs, are used now on the existing Washoe Valley section of the U.S. 395 highway.

    Contact Capital Bureau writer Sean Whaley at swhaley@reviewjournal.com or (775) 687-3900.



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    zman wrote on January 02, 2008 10:09 AM: The view from the freeway may be beautiful, but the view of the freeway will be an eyesore!

    This will also run along a mountainside that had a major landslide in the past 25 years and is geothermally active.....


    voter#_____ wrote on December 31, 2007 03:21 PM: "for every action, follows an equal opposite reaction"

    at the end of the day, we vote em in. they do what they want because 'we' is truly NOT 'we'. I mean if there were say a half dozen families in Nevada that needed shelter and they refused help because they really really liked their caravan. Then maybe, just maybe, I could live with myself knowing I just spent greed amounts of many people's money on a project to ease Nevada's access to their capital. Would it be cheaper to just buy the Capital employees a fleet of helicopters to get over that terrain? Maintaining them is gotta be way cheaper? Hmmmmmm, I gotta bet that some of them may have been educated in the same <47th educational system that they control. Last I checked most citizen still don't vote. Educate and more will vote, and they will vote with their education as a foundation for their picks. So if i was a snaky person, I would provide everyone with compromised and biased educations, tell them they know best and they received great educations just with a 'vegas' perspective. (Teen Pregnancy Prevention Video not included in package)In exchange, I get their vote in the future!! Well done. Now if we can just get the Governor to dumb it down just a little more!!! Why not Gibbons? Just Do it Man of the Year!!


    Marty wrote on December 31, 2007 02:32 PM:
    This is another example of the Northern biased governor and a Northern biased officals spending money in their back yard instead of where the taxpayers live. For a fraction of what they are waisting there, so much congestion could be relieved in Clark County.
    They have a great set-up there. We pay the taxes down here, they spend the tax money up there.


    Willie T Fredricks wrote on December 31, 2007 02:32 PM: Tim and the rest....Have you no sympathy for the Tom Stephens Memorial Freeway Fiasco?

    That project is so far over budget just to have his name associated with a freeway that has a unique bridge its pathetic.

    Don't just look at the state web site on that mess, look at the total history going back just the last 10 years.

    If any of your spouses caught any of you spending money on any kind of project, like the state did on that project, you'd all be paying alimony+. Thank you NDOT!


    tim wrote on December 31, 2007 02:09 PM: i wonder if any of our carson city politicians have any land along that route or at offramps? seemed to work out pretty good for our crooks down here along the 215. you know, design the road 10,15 yrs early,get some land and make a fortune.happened here.


    MC Hammer wrote on December 31, 2007 01:58 PM: Now, what we need is a new Interstate (I-13) connecting Phoenix to Reno though Las Vegas. Talk about moving the state forward.


    Geo Wright wrote on December 31, 2007 01:06 PM: I think we just found where the shortfall in the transportation funds can be made from. Oh come on, deicing equipment for 8.5 miles of interstate. The monies for th this highway, originally budgeted for $330 million now $170 million over budget (more to come I'm sure), could surely have been better spent somewhere else. Say on our children. I notice that the highway was designed by Colorado Engineers, is being build be a North Dakota Contractor with a California Subcontractor. Are their states ranked 46th in spending per pupil, while spending $500 million on 8.5 strech of highway. It doesn't seem reasonable that enough lives would be saved along the 8.5 mile stretch to justify the $500 million improvement. Could it be that since this is a Northern Nevada project it doesn't matter. I remember a quote from the 2007 legislature, "that is why I don't live in Southern Nevada." So long as it makes your drive easier, it doesn't matter how many people die on Southern Nevada Highways (116 in 2006).


    Jon H. wrote on December 31, 2007 11:14 AM: Bob,

    I lived in the Reno, Carson City Tahoe area for eighteen years, and know that this half billion dollar road is not needed. I have driven the Reno, Carson City route on 395 countless times.

    This project cannot be justified based on the alternatives, go read the article again.

    Now, how is it you can justify calling us hicks . . .

    Your answer, if you do answer, will be of some value.

    It might give us all a good laugh.


    Fed up with it wrote on December 31, 2007 11:09 AM: Bob, I am not against it. However, as Willie pointed out, widen 395 is one option that would not cost as much.

    Then I do not know about you, but if I hire a contractor to do work for me. If that contractor does not finish the work. I do not pay them. Do you?


    bob wrote on December 31, 2007 10:28 AM: This is needed, and everyone who has driven from Reno to Carson City knows it. Our CAPITAL city doesn't have an interstate. Why are you backwards hicks against EVERYTHING?


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