Boulder City toll road project discussed
CARSON CITY — Supporters lined up Wednesday to make the case for a Boulder City toll road from Railroad Pass to the Hacienda casino, with one exception: AFL-CIO representative Danny Thompson, who argued the tolls hurt the poor.
“This is a tax on poor people. This is a tax on the people I represent,” Thompson said.
Senate Bill 214, which cleared the Senate with a 19-2 vote, would create a public-private partnership that would last 55 years after the road is complete.
Bill sponsor Sen. Joe Hardy, R-Boulder City, told the Assembly Government Affairs Committee that Boulder City has become “the new bottleneck.”
Traffic has always been a problem, but supporters of the bill said the new route connecting Phoenix and Las Vegas has drawn workaday travelers as well as tourists who come to look at the O’Callaghan-Tillman Memorial Bridge linking Nevada and Arizona.
SB214 supporters also fault the design of U.S. Highway 93 itself for the problems: It wasn’t built to handle so much traffic.
Hardy said the 15-mile toll road would ease traffic congestion and give drivers the option of using the new pay-per-ride road or continue to use U.S. Highway 93 for free.
No action was taken on the bill.
