The summer of our road cone discontent

It’s that time of year again when your vegetable garden grows before it fries, you spend your weekends barbecuing by the pool, and, oh yeah, construction cones mysteriously begin popping up all over our valley’s roads. Summer. To be honest, I’m not sure what it is. Maybe transportation agencies get money this time of year or maybe it’s the warmer temperatures that allow for paving. Whatever the case, some readers already are sick of it.

Here’s Heather: It seems as if every city street is choked by cones and barriers. Now it is Valley View Boulevard. Can you please tell me what is happening there and how long it will last?

For the past few weeks, the work has centered around locating gas utilities along the stretch near Oakey Boulevard. Crews also are relocating some utilities in preparation for yet another project. So, the lane restrictions might be gone for now, but trust me, they’ll be back. This summer, the city of Las Vegas is beginning its widening project of Valley View and Jones boulevards. Valley View will be three lanes headed northbound between Sahara Avenue and U.S. Highway 95; Jones will be widened to three lanes in the southbound direction. The idea is to improve north-south traffic flow near the city’s core.

Art is tired of road work, too: I understand they are building a new bus lane on Sahara Avenue, but do they really need to close down a lane all the way from Hualapai Way past Valley View Boulevard? They can’t be working on it all at the same time. Why can’t they just close it down section by section?

Because these designated bus lanes are funded by a federal grant, there are very specific requirements for the project.

The one requirement that best explains the extensive closures on Sahara Avenue is timeliness. While a project like this would typically take a couple of years, the Regional Transportation Commission is required to finish it within 12 months. Crews are starting at both ends of the project and working toward the center.

“We are on a very, very tight schedule,” said Dave Swallow, project manager.

Art is right. They might not be working on the entire stretch of roadway at once, and there are a few reasons for that. Mainly, it would be too unsafe to block off a lane and reopen it only to block it off again 200 yards down the road. Also, sometimes the work is being done on the new 10-foot-side sidewalks and crews need to be protected.

Just to remind you all, this is part of the Sahara Express bus line, which will have its own designated lane along Sahara between Hualapai Way and Boulder Highway.

Also part of the design are bike lanes, wider sidewalks and landscaped medians.

Jeffrey asks: I was heading north on Buffalo Drive and stopped at the intersection of Buffalo and Mountain’s Edge Parkway. The intersection has a four-way stop, but I observed a vehicle that was heading west on Mountain’s Edge Parkway run through the intersection without stopping. I hesitated giving the driver a blast from my horn, but the vehicle passed quickly through. I then realized the driver probably never saw the stop sign because he or she was driving to the left of one of those double tractor-trailer dump trucks. Mountain’s Edge has several lanes of east and west travel separated by a median but only a single stop sign on the right in each direction. Shouldn’t there also be a stop sign in the median as well so all lanes of travel can adequately see that there is a four-way stop?

Good call, Jeffrey. Clark County traffic engineers went out and checked that intersection, and they agree with you. They will contact the developer and ask not only that stop signs be installed in the medians, but warning signs be placed 550 feet from the intersection, alerting motorists of the upcoming stop signs.

If you have a question, tip or tirade, call Adrienne Packer at (702) 387-2904, or send an e-mail to roadwarrior@
reviewjournal.com. Include your phone number.