Several key road projects approved
The Las Vegas Beltway, Craig Road and North Fifth Street are among Las Vegas Valley thoroughfares targeted for upgrades under the Regional Transportation Commission’s spending plan for the 2008 fiscal year, which begins July 1.
The $639 million operating and capital budget, approved Thursday by the RTC’s board and up about 12 percent from the previous fiscal year, includes more than $175 million to be handed out to local and state governments for various road projects.
That includes ongoing work to convert the Beltway into a freeway throughout its 53-mile loop by 2013, at a total final cost of over $1.1 billion.
This year’s list of road work also includes funds to start construction on a pair of major North Las Vegas projects: an overpass carrying Craig Road above railroad tracks near Interstate 15 and the widening of North Fifth between downtown Las Vegas and the Beltway to allow more and faster traffic.
Covering those projects is about $182 million in projected Question 10 sales tax revenue managed by the RTC and set aside for local road work. The RTC does not actually build roads itself, but it doles out money to local governments and coordinates regional road planning.
The RTC also plans to spend another $263 million on mass transit-related projects, including work on new express bus lines linking downtown Las Vegas to the Strip and along Boulder Highway, and a new bus maintenance yard in the southern valley.
The RTC also plans to buy 175 new buses and 14 smaller transit vehicles as part of an overhaul of Citizens Area Transit’s existing fleet. Of those buses, 80 will be double-decked buses slated to supplement “The Deuce” service on the Strip and replace aging stretch buses on other high-volume valley routes.
CAT and its related companies are slated to spend around $164 million, with about 10 percent of that cost going to fuel. On Thursday, the commission locked in a “hedged” fuel price of around $2.17 per gallon in hopes of avoiding wild price spikes that have pushed current street-level gasoline prices over $3 per gallon.
