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Drivers heading for Smith's Food and Drug Center in Dayton to pick up their groceries will eventually have a traffic signal to guide them.

Scott Magruder, Nevada Department of Transportation spokesman, confirmed that a traffic signal will be installed at Pine Cone and Highway 50 East in Dayton, once the intersection meets warrants for a signal and when funding is available.

He could not say how long that might take.

"When it meets warrants, we have agreed that would be the best location," he said.

Magruder said warrants, or conditions, that need to be met include amount of traffic, the number of accidents, severity of accidents, number of left-turn movements and peak hour traffic, among others.

"There's a lot of things that need to be met," he said. "But that is the location for a future traffic signal, and at this point it has got to meet the warrants."

He said the intersection does not meet warrants now.

"But we anticipate that with future growth and development, it will meet it eventually," he said.

Magruder said that once warrants are met, the availability of funding impacts when a signal would be installed.

The only intersection along Highway 50 from Carson City east to Silver Springs that has a traffic signal is at Dayton Valley Road.

Another location that has been slated for a signal, according to the Highway 50 Corridor Study, is the intersection of Highway 50 and State Route 341, the road to Virginia City.

Sandy Stenio, NDOT's local government liaison, has said the State Route 341-Highway 50 intersection will be reconfigured into a four-way, adding a frontage road onto the south side of Highway 50.

She said the frontage road would lead from Jeanette Drive to Yhvona Drive, and that a public hearing on the issue would be scheduled.

• Contact reporter Karen Woodmansee at kwoodmansee@nevadaappeal.com or call 881-7351.