Carson Street work starts

Orange cones and pavement -- the sights and smells of summer construction.

However, with night work on Carson City's biggest road project this summer, drivers might have to head to, say, Reno, to smell sun-heated, fresh asphalt. Work began Sunday evening on the $2.1 million repaving of South Carson Street.

The road will be reduced to one lane in each direction with delays from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m., Sunday through Thursday. The project is expected to be completed in August, said Scott Magruder, Nevada Department of Transportation spokesman. Granite Construction Co. is doing the work.

The project will turn the four-lane road into a six-lane congestion reliever --

at least, that's the hope.

The state plans to add a third southbound lane from Fairview Drive to Highway 50 East and an extra northbound lane from the Highway 50 interchange to Stewart Street. The lane addition will require slight modification of some of the roads concrete barrier, and bicyclists will no longer have a dedicated shoulder on which to ride.

The road is used by roughly 45,000 cars daily with congestion at several intersections reaching gridlock, especially in rush hours.

The expansion, which will encompass the existing roadway and shoulder, will allow traffic to flow more freely on a street which at certain areas sees levels of service rated "F."

In transportation lingo, level of service A is free flowing traffic. Level of service F -- the worst -- is basically the Winnie Lane/Carson Street intersection at 5 p.m.

Koontz Lane currently boasts the lowest service level, and with the expansion will improve to a service level C -- a much more free-flowing level of traffic. Clearview Drive is expected to reach service level B, similar to traffic flows at Carson Street and College Parkway.