Council OKs road-widening funds

Denise Cardinal

Wednesday, March 25, 1998 | 9:55 a.m.

The city of Las Vegas is shelling out $750,000 to make it easier for motorists to drive around the city on surface streets.

The money is being used to fix what are called saw-tooth roads -- those streets that from one block to the next become narrower or wider without warning.

The City Council voted unanimously at Monday's meeting to pay for paving that would keep lanes from suddenly ending.

The city said there are about 122 different saw-tooth locations throughout the city that will be fixed through the funding which comes from the city's Public Works Department.

Developers, who will eventually reimburse the city for the paving costs, are required to pay for street expansions when they start construction. But since it can take years before some lots are built on, the streets remain unfinished.

Mayor Jan Laverty Jones discussed the problem of saw-tooth roads in her State of the City address last month. It was brought to her attention, she said, just by driving around.

"Every time I drive around this city, I'll be going on a road and then all of a sudden there'll be dirt and gravel," Jones said. "This is not OK. So I just asked the Public Works Department to tell me how to fix it."