Work to begin on Highway 50

More than $16 million in highway improvements on Highway 50 between Fernley and Fallon are scheduled to begin next year, including widening a section of the highway to five lanes just west of Fallon, according to the Nevada Department of Transportation.

An estimated $9 million project to widen four miles of Highway 50 to five lanes from the Leetville Junction to a half-mile east of the Scheckler cutoff in Fallon is expected to begin next summer. Construction is expected to be completed by summer 2003. Currently, more than 10,000 vehicles use this section of highway a day, up from 6,700 in 1991.

In addition, an estimated $7 million project to replace the railroad overpass in east Fernley and realign and widen the intersection of Highway 95A/Highway 50A to Fremont Street is expected to begin next summer. This project is expected to take about a year to complete.

A $1.5 million project to widen Highway 95A from Fremont Street to Interstate 80 began this summer and is expected to be completed by July.

The state has been working for the past several years on a five-phase, $50 million project to upgrade and widen the 30-mile highway from I-80 in Fernley to Fallon. The remaining two phases, widening the rest of Highway 50 between the Leetville cutoff and Fernley, are slated to begin within the next three years. All five projects are using federal and state funds.