Design/build methods approved for USA Parkway

The Nevada Department of Transportation board on Monday unanimously instructed staff to move forward with the USA Parkway project that will connect Highway 50 in Lyon County with Interstate 80 at the Tahoe Reno Industrial Center.

Deputy NDOT Director John Terry told the board using the “design/build” process, the project can be completed as much as a year earlier than if the traditional bidding process were followed.

The 18.5-mile project will cost an estimated $65 million to $70 million and Terry said it should open to traffic in December 2017.

The work involves improvements on the existing six miles of four-lane road in the industrial center, paving and improving the four miles of graded dirt road from there to the Storey-Lyon county line and construction of 8.5 miles of new four-lane from that point to Highway 50 at Opal Avenue in Silver Springs. He said industrial center operators own the first two pieces of right-of-way while the third involves some Bureau of Land Management property and, nearing Highway 50, some private land.

The money to accomplish the project will come by delaying seven different Northern Nevada road projects — all maintenance work including one in Carson City.

That project is the $4.9 million rehabilitation of U.S. 395 from William Street (Highway 50) north to the Washoe County line.

All of the projects will be pushed back a year, freeing up just over $70 million.

Terry said a final piece of the puzzle — BLM approval to build in the corridor through federal land — is expected in January.

The project will be advertised in February.

When completed, the road will greatly reduce travel time for people driving from Silver Springs and the Dayton corridor to Reno. It also will open access for those residents to jobs in the industrial center.