Sierra Vista Lane project in Carson City gets nod from RTC

The Regional Transportation Commission approved the final details on the Sierra Vista Lane project clearing the way for reconstruction of the road to start next spring.

The project requires rights-of-way from eight private property owners, as well as the Bureau of Land Management and Bureau of Indian Affairs, that were essentially finalized at the RTC meeting on Monday.

The BLM permit was received by Public Works staff but not in time to put it on the agenda so it will be approved at the RTC’s December meeting.

The BIA easement and an agreement with one private property owner is adding cost to the project which can’t be recovered through the federal grant paying for the bulk of the work.

“It was not part of the original agreement and they’re not going to pay for it,” said Darren Schulz, director, Public Works, referring to the grant agreement.

The BIA is receiving $4,150 in just compensation as the project affects about 1.2 acres of the bureau’s land, according to Dirk Goering, senior transportation planner.

A fence on one private property will be removed during the project, a temporary fence installed and then the permanent fence replaced at the end of work. Also, the city has agreed to pave a driveway apron at the property.

That work will add between $15,000 to $20,000 to the project cost, said Goering.

“We considered not doing it but it would require a redesign of the project at far greater expense,” said Lucia Maloney, transportation manager.

Both additional expenses will be paid for with undesignated funds in the city’s streets fund.

The $4.56 million Sierra Vista Lane project is being mostly paid for through a Federal Lands Access Program (FLAP) grant Carson City applied for in 2015 and was awarded in 2016.

The grant covers 95 percent of agreed to costs and the city pays the remaining 5 percent.

The RTC will consider another FLAP grant application at its December meeting. This grant would be used on a $3 million project to make drainage improvements and reconstruct about a quarter mile of Kings Canyon Road up to the trailhead at the top of the road.

A project to redo parts of Fairview Drive will be presented at the next Carson Area Metropolitan Area Planning Organization meeting, which takes place right before the RTC meets.

Carson City will receive about $650,000 in 2018 in Surface Transportation Block Grant money from the Nevada Department of Transportation, which it’s planning to use to reconstruct and micro seal part of Fairview Drive, particularly in the first block east of Carson Street.

Carson City was supposed to receive the money in 2020, but Lyon County, which is part of CAMPO, requested it take its share in 2020 instead of next year.

Maloney said preliminary data from NDOT shows traffic on Fairview Drive has dropped by about 60 percent and on South Carson Street by about 40 percent since the I-580 bypass opened this past summer.