County to pay beltway costs left hanging by Hughes Corp.

Adrienne Packer

Wednesday, Aug. 4, 1999 | 10:05 a.m.

Clark County agreed to pick up the $6 million tab for the Howard Hughes Corp. after the developers said they do not have the money to complete a stretch of the Las Vegas Beltway by 2000.

Commissioner Lance Malone, who is up for re-election next year, told his fellow board members that he promised his constituents in the northwest that the beltway would be done next year and he intends on following through with it.

Howard Hughes officials had agreed to fund and complete the 1.9-mile stretch from Summerlin Parkway to Cheyenne Avenue but said the work would not be finished for another three years.

Initially the Summerlin development company planned to excavate a portion of the highway until additional traffic warranted a wider roadway. However, after residents complained about two phases of construction, the county requested the entire road be widened at once.

"We approached Summerlin developers and instructed them to excavate the full width," Public Works Director Marty Manning said. "That doubled the amount of dirt. They can't find places to store the material."

Excavating nearly 2 miles of roadway would create about 2 million cubic feet of dirt, which the county plans to sell.

Manning said aside from the county pitching in $6 million, it could build a temporary road from Summerlin Parkway to Cheyenne.

Commissioner Yvonne Atkinson Gates summed the issue up when she asked: "Is accelerating the beltway and keeping it on our time frame worth $6 million?"

Apparently the answer was yes. The board voted 6-0 to pay for excavation costs. Commissioner Myrna Williams was absent.