V&T construction moves into Carson Canyon

Effective Monday, cars and ATVs will no longer be able to drive the old Virginia & Truckee Railway route through Carson Canyon.

The canyon will be closed to traffic a quarter mile south of Highlands Drive in Lyon County as work begins on the next phase of the V&T reconstruction.

Project Engineer Ken Dorr said the 1.1-mile phase begins at Highway 50 where contractors have just finished installing the railroad bridge. The work will be paid for with just under $2 million in federal stimulus money. Q&D Construction of Reno is doing the work.

When completed, Dorr said the work will extend the track to the historic Eureka Siding. That siding also will be restored, he said, to permit the locomotive to be moved from one end of the train to the other to take passengers back up the hill.

Dorr said that extension will permit passengers to get a good view of the Carson River in the canyon below.

"We're still quite a way above it but the vantage point is spectacular, particularly in the fall," he said, adding that the phase will be completed this fall.

The reconstruction project will eventually close the old railroad grade from the Bertagnolli Aggregate Pit just east of Deer Run Road to Highlands Drive.

But the construction won't shut down four-wheel drive access to the river - including the road from the Carson City Shooting Range and the road below Kit Kat Drive.