Stewart project completed; Curry to follow shortly

Stewart Street from Highway 50 East to Roop Street has reopened to traffic.

"The contractor is doing a few cleanup items. They've got a punch list, but even those will be done by the middle of November," said Patrick Pittenger, the city's transportation director.

The $5.6 million project, which took a slight curve to connect Stewart Street with Moody Street, was started in the spring and included new sidewalks, rights-of-way and new utilities through the existing neighborhood and the removal of a couple of modulars from the Corbett Elementary School.

"When we upgrade, we obviously don't want to rip out our brand new road to fix an old pipe that's gone bad," Pittenger said.

The contractor, A&K Earthmovers, finished on time and before winter, he said.

"This sets us up to get back to our Roop Street work," he said.

A sidelight of the project was an opportunity to work with the school district on a sidewalk in front of Corbett school, he said.

"We entered into an agreement with the district to split costs of $60,000 with them on the south side of the school. It was uphill and required a retaining wall and it's about a block long, so the kids can use it there," he said.

The new street, which was less than half a mile long, T's into Roop Street and a traffic signal is now working at that intersection, he said.

The Carson City Board of Supervisors is expected to rename affected portions of David and Moody streets to North Stewart Street when it meets on Thursday.

The same contractor is doing the $3.8 million Curry Street project from Koontz Lane to Rhodes Street, and they expect it to be completed by the end of the month, Pittenger said.

"That's a complete rebuild with one lane in each direction, a center turn lane, bike lanes, sidewalks and street lights, plus stormwater drainage," he said.

"This will be so much better for businesses, especially with the two new car dealerships being built there," he said.

"Both of these were multimillion projects and both came in far below estimates. Even though the economy is bad, it's a very favorable bidding climate that's enabled the city to do quite a bit in the transportation world," he said.

The Regional Transportation Commission will consider adopting a resolution at its meeting tonight requesting the board of supervisors to issue $7.9 million in highway revenue bonds, which will fund the completion of capital projects currently under way such as the Stewart Street extension and the Curry Street project and to fund Phase 2 of the Roop Street project.

The Regional Transporta-tion Commission meets at 5:30 p.m. today in the Sierra Room of the Carson City Community Center, 851 E. William St.

WHAT: The Regional Transportation Commission

WHEN: 5:30 p.m. today

WHERE: Sierra Room of the Carson City Community Center, 851 E. William St.

MORE INFORMATION: call 887-2355.