Transportation chief to check traffic

Wednesday, July 25, 2001 | 11:04 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Harry Reid and Transportation Secretary Norm Minetta will swoop over Clark County roadways and Hoover Dam during a helicopter tour of the Las Vegas area next month before they hold a summit on transportation woes in Nevada, Reid announced Tuesday.

The tour, scheduled for Aug. 20, also will land at the site of the proposed Ivanpah airport, roughly 30 miles south of Las Vegas, where officials will take a walking tour.

The trip will conclude at McCarran International Airport, where Reid plans to hold meetings and workshops to discuss the state's transportation problems with federal, state and local officials. They hope to outline long-term plans for state transportation projects.

"Our state cannot afford to take our transportation systems for granted," Reid, D-Nev., said. "They are the lifeblood of Nevada's tourism industry and of our state's economy. Nevada's rapid growth has been a mixed blessing, because many of our transportation systems are now stretched to the limit."

Nevada lawmakers have been urging Congress to finance a high-speed magnetic train between Southern California and Nevada, and to invest more in widening traffic-clogged Interstate 15 along the same route.

Mayor Oscar Goodman told Congress this week that a proposed monorail track linking the Strip to downtown would also ease traffic tie-ups in Las Vegas.

Congress and President Clinton last year approved a deal that set the $500 million Ivanpah airport development in motion. It would open in 2010 or 2011 and ease future crowding at McCarran.