Nevada doesn’t think they’re bundles of joy.
According to the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada, the amount of new cars entering the arterials in the Las Vegas area has reached 100 a day. The population boom has the state department of transportation scrambling to find room. Gov. Kenny Guinn, who also is the chairman of the state transportation board, announced a heavy wish list of new road construction projects set to be completed over the next 10 years. Eight have been named “super projects” and two “mega projects.” The biggest of the bunch involves work on I-15 around Las Vegas. Widening the interstate from Tropicana Avenue to the Spaghetti Bowl and back out to Foothill Boulevard could exceed $3 billion. The $350 million Boulder City bypass and the $264 million I-15 widening from Tropicana to Sloan highlight the super list. Together the activity will form the largest highway construction program in the state’s history.
“All of the projects are necessary to keep up with the growth,” Scott Magruder, spokesman for NDOT, told Roads & Bridges. “Funding has not been identified but we are looking for some options. It’s a pretty aggressive construction plan. Are they all necessary? We are trying to figure this all out at this stage.” Funding, however, is in short supply. Guinn announced in mid-June that the DOT is expected to receive $6.2 billion from 2008 to 2014 from state gas tax revenue, federal funds and other sources. The kicker is the agency is already set to spend an estimated $8.6 billion.
To help come up with an answer, a 15-member Blue Ribbon Task Force is in the process of being formed to evaluate future long-range project funding for the transportation department.
“Nothing came up about taxes or tax increases,” said Magruder. “We want to look at the long term. We have available funding for the current three-year projects, but after that we’re hoping that the Blue Ribbon Task Force comes up with some funding alternatives.”
Among the options the appointed group may be discussing are the possibility of setting up a tolling system or the idea of privatization. Currently Nevada does not have any toll roads, but Magruder does not believe there would be enough system users to make the plan attractive.
“It’s not like California where you have the Bay Bridge that draws what seems to be 100,000 cars in an hour,” he said. “They may come back and represent transit, but that’s expensive, too.”
The passing of a new federal highway-funding bill will help Nevada with its quest, but the exact level—$284 billion or $295 billion—may not make much of a difference.
“At this point we feel pretty confident that we’ll be OK, but there is still going to be a shortfall,” said Magruder.
The growing pattern, however, is showing no signs of slowing down. It’s estimated that an additional 2.8 million people will settle in Nevada by 2010, and the state already has a $400 million backlog in maintenance projects.
