U.S. 95 neighbors in limbo while widening plans delayed

Jace Radke

Thursday, Feb. 18, 1999 | 11:48 a.m.

Bev and Ron Rainford are not opposed to the proposed widening of U.S. 95 from six lanes to 10, even though the project will probably cause their home, located along the freeway near Jones Boulevard, to be demolished.

What the Rainfords would like to know is when they will have to be out of their house and when the construction will start.

"We feel like we're in limbo," Bev Rainford said. "We'd like to know how much time we have and where the project will start. We're a little anxious."

The Nevada Department of Transportation would like to give the Rainfords and other residents some concrete answers about the project that will widen the freeway from Rainbow Boulevard to Interstate 15, but right now such answers don't exist.

"It's one of the difficulties of the process," Nevada Department of Transportation spokesman Kent Cooper said at Wednesday night's meeting of the U.S. 95 Citizen's Review Committee. "Until our environmental impact study is approved by the Federal Highway Administration, we can only make predictions."

Currently those predictions would give the Rainfords one more Christmas in their home before it would be acquired as a right of way.

The next step in getting approval for the impact statement, which outlines how the project will affect residents and the surrounding area, will come in early April when NDOT holds a public hearing on the report. From there a final draft of the report will be sent to the Federal Highway Administration with an approval or denial expected in the fall.

A rough draft of the environmental impact statement will be made public before then, which should answer many residents' questions about noise levels, sound wall buffers, aesthetics and the overall impact of the project, Cooper said.

Other questions like those of resident Roy Miller may not have an answer.

"You can see the cranes and building going on at the Spaghetti Bowl, so anyone that doesn't think these extra lanes aren't coming is crazy," said Miller, whose house off Decatur Boulevard may face an 18-foot sound wall if the project is approved. "The people that get displaced by the project and have to move are the lucky ones. What about those left behind staring at that ugly wall?"

The project, which will also widen U.S. 95 from Rainbow to Craig Road to six lanes and Summerlin Parkway to six lanes, is expected to displace 188 single family homes, 138 apartment units and about 14 businesses, NDOT consultant Roger Patton said.

The review committee will hold another meeting next month to take public comment on the project from Decatur to the I-15 interchange, known as the Spaghetti Bowl. The committee will then put together a report including public comment to be forwarded to the City Council for review.