A map from Carson City’s pavement management plan showing the city’s streets in five performance districts. Road projects rotate each year between the districts.
Courtesy
A little more than a month after voters shot down two tax proposals to fund neighborhood streets, the Carson City Regional Transportation Commission has homed in on some unexpended federal funding it hopes will go to local roads.
RTC members Wednesday voted 4-1, with Commissioner Lucia Maloney opposed, to request from the Board of Supervisors up to $456,837.20 in unexpended ARPA funds for local roads. According to the city, those funds must be obligated by the end of the year, and supervisors are expected to make allocations Dec. 19.
The first proposed tax measure on the ballot was a .25 percent sales tax, and the second was a supplemental government services tax collected at the DMV. Projected to raise $7 million annually for local streets that don’t receive federal grants like regional roads, the ballot measures failed by double-digit margins.
The city rotates road projects each year between five performance districts. Supervisors previously allocated $2.5 million in ARPA funds to local road projects, one in each district. Wednesday, RTC members requested an additional $256,837.20 to fully fund the ARPA District 2 and 4A Pavement Preservation Project and $200,000 to evenly split between two new pavement preservation projects on Hillview Drive and Lepire Drive, respectively.
“Because these projects need to be under contract by the end of the year, we’re soliciting quotes,” Carson City Transportation Manager Chris Martinovich said of the proposed projects. “We’re ready to go on these if additional ARPA funding is also available.”
Martinovich said only a section of Lepire would be reconstructed with any additional ARPA funding, but he contended it would be a step in the right direction.
“’Yes, this pavement is terrible. It’s one of the worst in the city. We’re always going out there trying to patch this. Is there something we can do to get this less of an effort for city staff?’ And this was one of the ideas and solutions we came up.”
Maloney said there should be coordination with the parks and recreation department on potential grants to help with a nearby pullout and trailhead and fully fix the road.
Mayor Lori Bagwell, who chairs the RTC, said the recommendation to the board was “a wonderful opportunity to be able to put some more ARPA dollars to these projects,” though she didn’t guarantee the board would approve it.
RTC members also approved revising the scope and funding for existing projects not only to adjust for potential ARPA dollars, but for federal Surface Transportation Block Grant funding, too. According to transportation staff, there is an estimated $4.66 million in STBG funding freed up from Douglas County the city could use.
“STBG funding, as a reminder, cannot be used on roads classified as local,” Martinovich said, “so it can only be used on roads classified as collectors and arterials.”
RTC directed staff to allocate STBG funding to the District 2 Little Lane Rehabilitation Project ($500,000 in STBG), the District 4 Curry Street Complete Street Project ($1.67 million), and the District 3 5th Street Roundabout Reconstruction Project ($1.47 million).
Staff had originally recommended about $1.07 million in STBG for the Curry Street Complete Street project. That project has been allocated $2.6 million in federal congressional spending as well. Total project costs are estimated to be about $4.68 million, including pavement reconstruction, stormwater improvements, earthwork and multimodal connections on the stretch of Curry between Rhodes Street and “the northern limit of the USFS parcel,” according to staff.
Bagwell included in the motion an additional $600,000 in STBG funding be directed to the Curry Street project, freeing up more money from local funds. Martinovich believed the $600,000 was primarily from planned redevelopment funds.
After the hearing, Bagwell said the future remodel of the Carson City Courthouse, as an example, would be an opportunity to use the redevelopment funding in another way. Maloney, who voted against the measure, confirmed she believed any planned redevelopment funding for Curry should go to the road project.
In other related action, RTC members unanimously awarded an approximately $1.1 million contract with Intermountain Slurry Seal Inc. for the ARPA Districts 2 and 4A Pavement Preservation Project.
The project consists of pavement patching, crack repair, restriping, traffic sign installation and slurry seal on several local streets in districts 2 and 4. The approval included bid alternatives that can be exercised in the event supervisors allocate more ARPA dollars. The base bid is for Table Rock Drive, Longridge Drive, New Ridge Drive, Stafford Way, Travis Drive, Baker Drive, Rasner Court and Wilson Court, costing $607,987, according to the agenda.
“The three bid alternatives include Greenbriar Drive, Ashford Drive, Briarwood Drive, Tuscarora Way, Kerinne Circle, Lander Drive and Pioche Street,” reads the agenda.
RTC members also approved a roughly $1.8 million contract with F.W. Carson Inc. for the District 3 Menlo Drive ARPA Improvement Project for various improvements on Menlo between North Lompa Lane and Airport Road. Approximately $892,230 in ARPA funding was previously allocated for the project, with the rest coming from water and wastewater capital improvement funding.