Current NDOT budget spending $450 million on projects

The Nevada Department of Transportation on Tuesday outlined $450 million in construction and maintenance projects being done this fiscal year " including the $46 million to complete Carson City's bypass as far as Fairview Drive.

Some $230 million is federal funds, the rest is state generated by taxes and fees as well as bonds.

Of the total, $142 million will be spent for maintenance, more than a third of which is for three projects to repair and resurface 50 miles of Interstate 80 through Pershing County. The total cost of that work is $52 million.

The largest single project on the list moving forward this fiscal year, said Deputy NDOT Director Kent Cooper, is Phase 1 of the south I-15 corridor in Las Vegas. The state is adding additional lanes, a new bridge at Sunset and repairs to local access points. When finished, I-15 will have 10 lanes from Blue Diamond to Tropicana.

That project is a design build project and NDOT will receive the pre-qualification bids from companies interested by Thursday. Cooper said that will hopefully enable completion of the project up to two years earlier than the traditional construction method.

The estimated cost of the project is $240 million but not all of that comes out of this fiscal budget.

The NDOT board, headed by the governor, gave the department the go-ahead to proceed with the process and get a contract signed in the spring.

The final phase of the Carson bypass is on NDOT's project list, but not until 2014.

The big problem is that no funding source has been identified for the $220 million project that will connect the bypass with Highway 395 south at Spooner Junction and Carson Street.

The bypass work being done now will end at Fairview next year.

Beyond that, the largest project under way in northern Nevada is the I-580 project from Mount Rose Highway to the north end of Washoe Valley, which project managers say is on schedule.

In Churchill County, the largest project this fiscal year is the resurfacing of U.S. 95 from south of Pasture Road to Schekler Road for a total of $4.76 million.

In Douglas County, more erosion control work is being done on Highway 50 in the Tahoe Basin " paid for by Tahoe bonds. And there are several projects to replace bridge and guard rails on State Route 88 among other relatively small projects.

Lyon County residents will see a four-way signal completed at the junction of Highway 50 and State Route 341 to Virginia City.

- Contact reporter Geoff Dornan at gdornan@nevadaappeal.com or 687-8750.