RTC to set priorities

After gathering public comments on Carson City's transportation needs, the Regional Transportation Commission is prepared to set its priority list for this year.

The transportation commission met a week ago with residents in a four-hour workshop to discuss transportation priorities.

City staff took the information from the workshop and prepared a draft, which commissioners will review Wednesday.

With the completion of the $6.3 million Graves Lane project, the commission has a limited amount of funds with which to fund projects. The RTC is funded by a 9-cent gas tax. Five cents is funneled directly to the Nevada Department of Transportation for the city's portion of the northern leg of the freeway -estimated at $1.7 million this year. About $60,000 a month is generated for the commission by the other 4 cents after salaries, supplies and a roughly $278,000 debt payment for Graves Lane are subtracted.

Almost $521,000 worth of projects are budgeted for this year in the draft plan including:

- $306,000 for soundwalls on College Parkway

- $43,590 for a bicycle and pedestrian element to the transportation master plan.

- $150,000 for the widening of Goni Road

- $13,740 for a street element to the transportation master plan.

"We put together a list and arranged it in a sequence we thought would be the best for the community," RTC Senior Engineer Harvey Brotzman said. "We'll just keep whittling at this list of projects, but at this time next year, we'll be back around here again."

The draft list is open to change by commissioners, Brotzman said, but includes projects and their funding time line through 2005.

Commissioners are also being asked by a private developer to move a project up the priority list.

Conkey Development is asking the commission to raise the priority and funding of a traffic signal at Carson and Sonoma streets from a medium priority to a high priority.

Conkey would like to develop the south Carson property and wants the $195,000 stoplight included in the 2000-2001 budget cycle. The stoplight and extension of Sonoma Street are necessary for development; however, state warrants for the traffic signal are dependent on development.

The Sonoma Street extension, which would push the street across Carson Street to Curry Street, is set for $185,000 of funding in 2003 in the new draft plan. Both the Sonoma stop light and the extension are listed in the master plan as medium priorities.

Brotzman said the RTC could choose to move the Sonoma stop light up the priority list, but Brotzman sees other projects as having more urgency. He said the east side of Clearview Road at Carson Street needs to be expanded to relieve traffic on Carson Street. That $200,000 project is scheduled for completion in 2001.

If you go:

What: Carson City Regional Transportation Commission

When: Wednesday, 5:30 p.m.

Where: Cooperative Extension Conference Room, 2621 Northgate Lane, Suit 12, Carson City.

High prioirty projects on the new draft of Carson's transportation list include:

Project Estimated Cost Year scheduled for completion

Street Element of master plan $13,740 2000

Murphy Drive $50,000 2001

Old Clear Creek Road $125,000 2001

Traffic Calming Projects $75,000 2001

Stewart Street Extension $390,560 2001-2004

Sonoma Street extension $185,000 2003

Curry Street extension from Lake Glen to Koontz $1.8 million

Arrowhead connector road to Graves Lane $1.1 million

Left turn lane on Roop Street at Northridge $10,000 2001

Intersection and Carson Street and Clearview Drive $200,000 2001

Traffic signal at Roop Street and Winnie Lane $150,000 2001

(EDS NOTE: THIS BRKOUT IS OPTIONAL!!!)

The highest priorities on Carson's transportation list last year included:

Project Estimated Cost

Arrowhead connector road to Graves Lane $1.1 million

Curry Street extension from Lake Glen to Koontz $1.7 million

Curry Street extension from Koontz to Clearview undetermined

Edmonds Drive widening from Butti Way to Fairview Drive $1.3 million

Ormsby Boulevard extension $745,000

Signal at Roop Street and Winnie Lane $150,000

Stewart Street extension $326,160