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Opinion
Jan. 02, 2008
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

EDITORIAL: Highway spending

The Nevada Department of Transportation doesn't have enough money to complete some badly needed highway improvements in gridlocked Las Vegas. But the reason for that revenue shortfall is not the eroding buying power of the state's gasoline and vehicle registration taxes.

It lies in a valley some 400 miles northwest of here.

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    • There, in the mountains between Reno and Carson City, NDOT is spending half a billion dollars on a dazzling new freeway that, when finished in mid-2011, will include one of the longest concrete-arch bridges in the United States. In places, the 8.5-mile road will rise hundreds of feet above the ground, requiring the installation of millions of dollars worth of deicing equipment.

    When visiting Southern Nevadans use the sparkling Interstate 580 to speed between Reno and the state capital, they'll no doubt look down at the old route, U.S. Highway 395, and wonder why that road wasn't simply widened. If transportation planners had gone the practical route, the project would have cost only $125 million, the Review-Journal reported Monday, freeing $375 million to be spent right now on higher-priority improvements.

    Instead, NDOT will end up spending about as much on I-580 as the agency did on the just-completed widening of U.S. Highway 95 from downtown Las Vegas to the Rainbow Curve. Only the I-580 project, when complete, will carry about one-tenth the traffic that U.S. 95 will have three years from now.

    The call to splurge came almost 30 years ago, when NDOT decided against condemning homes along U.S. 395. No one stepped forward in the years that followed -- not even Govs. Bob Miller and Kenny Guinn, both Southern Nevadans -- to put a stop to the squandering project.

    "It was a political decision, not an engineering decision, on where to put the route," said Dave Titzel, an assistant district engineer based in Northern Nevada.

    As a result, NDOT has had to push back several important Southern Nevada projects, including the widening of Interstate 15 between U.S. 95 and Sahara. This has many lawmakers agitating for higher taxes on gasoline, vehicle registrations and driver's licenses to speed up the work.

    But that's the wrong approach. Instead, lawmakers should make sure that in the foreseeable future, the Reno-Sparks-Carson City area, which already has enviable traffic flow and will gain a freeway infrastructure years ahead of driver demand, gets no state funding for major additional highway expansions.



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    cas127 wrote on January 05, 2008 12:34 PM: How about running the list of project contractors against the list of contributors to the various State Legislators.

    Anybody want to bet they aren't essentially the same list?


    Charles Foxtrot wrote on January 02, 2008 04:52 PM: And to think whomever wrote this article really only began to scratch the surface of the truth behind the money pit up here.

    Malfeasance sounds very descriptive here in my opinion


    Tom, Burbank wrote on January 02, 2008 03:58 PM: Hmmm, interesting situation. Maybe it's your mouse, but If this doesn't happen with other sites you may visit, then I can't say. Maybe the RJ really likes you. I don't have that luck.


    tim wrote on January 02, 2008 03:07 PM: tom burbank i hit it once every time same results, maybe need new mouse?


    Tom, Burbank wrote on January 02, 2008 03:01 PM: tim, hit "Post Comment" once. It can take several minutes before your comments actually appear, so once you post, even after the page refreshes itself, your comment may not be uploaded yet.


    tim wrote on January 02, 2008 01:45 PM: john f. i remember you had trouble with double entrys, how did you solve it, its driving me nuts.


    tim wrote on January 02, 2008 01:12 PM: the nv.dept.of transportation does,nt have enough money. is that not the standard responce for every gov.agency? and maybe the n.h.p.should change their policy,if thats the excuse.they do it here,accident takes two lanes three are left and the keystones cant figure a way to get traffic around,please.


    Ken wrote on January 02, 2008 12:57 PM: John F,

    The reason all roads are not built with extra lanes as one would expect is cost incurred by taxpayers now for something that someone else will drive on later.

    With Las Vegas now over two million people, it is easier to collect the money for improvements to the existing roads than it would have been to tax the Las Vegas citizens when there were say, 500,000 people to put that many lanes in initialy.

    Unfortunatly thats the way it is. I dont like it any more than you. But I would not be happy for NDOT to announce that they were expanding I-15 six more lanes both ways expecting our population to reach three million in 2012, but wanted me and you to pay for it today.


    RenoRod wrote on January 02, 2008 08:44 AM:
    Doesn't this dirt rag ever come up with anything original to write about? This is like the 4th or 5th time you've written about this. Get over it. If you're too stupid to come up with some new column ideas then you need to find another career.


    Ensign Expendable wrote on January 02, 2008 08:01 AM: I would like to point out that widening U.S. 395 through Pleasant Valley, while technically feasible, was not a safe alternative.

    Right now, U.S. 395 is a 4-lane highway that runs through a small residential community that has sprung up along the route. As a result, there are numerous homes that have frontage on the highway. There have been several fatal accidents because of a car turning out of the residential areas and getting T-boned by drivers.

    And, per NHP policy, when a fatal occurs the highway is closed. At this time, there is NO alternate route or turn-outs from the Mount Rose Highway junction through East Lake Boulevard just north of Washoe Valley (a distance of 15 miles). Accident there = at least an hour to an hour-and-a-half wait.

    Considering most people commute TO Reno or FROM Reno for work, a better solution is needed.


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