Construction to widen and rebuild the highway between Fernley and Fallon will begin next year, according to the Nevada Department of Transportation budget approved Wednesday.
The first project will expand the existing road to four lanes and add a center-turn lane from Scheckler Road in Fallon to Leetville Junction - the turnoff to Carson City and Dayton. It will cost an estimated $9 million.
State transportation Director Tom Stephens said the first section may cost more than estimated because "it's got a lot of right of way in it we have to acquire."
Transportation official Kent Cooper said two more stages of the project will extend the widened road to the Lyon/Churchill county line for about $8.5 million and from there to Fernley for another $9.1 million.
Then, Stephens said, the state will have to replace the existing two-lane bridge over the Union Pacific railroad tracks at Fernley and build a new interchange linking the road to Interstate 80.
"The bridge needs to be replaced," Stephens said. "The whole thing is going to wind up costing about $50 million and take until the end of the decade, I think."
In addition, the transportation construction budget includes $1.6 million worth of work on Highway 50 East in Mound House from the Carson City line to just east of the road to Virginia City - about 2.5 miles. And in 2002, Highway 50 from Fortune Drive east of Dayton to Shaves Road, about 6 miles, will be widened to four lanes. The estimated cost of that project is $17 million.