Beltway segement topic of debate

Adrienne Packer

Wednesday, March 7, 2001 | 11:03 a.m.

Whether a 1-mile segment of the northern Las Vegas Beltway is sunken or built at-grade might depend on an agreement reportedly made during a private meeting held between public works engineers and a major casino executive.

Searching for support for the 53-mile beltway, public works staff told Coast Casinos Chairman Michael Gaughan years ago if he gained the support of neighbors, the beltway section that passes his neighborhood would be depressed.

At least that is the story Gaughan told the Clark County commissioners.

"Public Works told him to talk to his neighbors, and if they came on board with the beltway, then it would be depressed," Commissioner Yvonne Atkinson Gates said Tuesday.

The segment in question stretches between Rio Vista and Mavericks avenues. Residents argued that if the road is sunken from Tenaya to Rio Vista, it might as well continue on the extra mile to Mavericks.

The county's public works staff, however, said it planned to build that stretch at street-level and to construct a sunken road would cost an additional $22 million. Engineers had no recollection of the meeting with Gaughan.

Administrators at Joe Neal Elementary School -- just 800 feet from the beltway -- also urged the county to sink the road, saying students' safety is at risk and noise from the roadway might interfere with their education.

Questions surround beltway plans from Tenaya Way to Jones Boulevard. Commissioners Mary Kincaid and Chip Maxfield, who oversee the region, would like a more than a two-lane interim beltway built, and Atkinson Gates agrees.

"We said we'd do the south side first and move around," Atkinson Gates said, referring to the full-fledged freeway in the south. "Now we've done as much as we can out there. We owe it to people to finish and build something comparable on the north side."

Public Works Director Marty Manning said the county initially planned to build a permanent freeway that extended around the valley, which would have been completed in 2020. But in 1996 the board decided to build an interim road that ran the entire 53 miles, then expand it as funds became available.

"We all agree with you; we think it would be fabulous to have all the money we needed," Manning said. "It would take $679 million more to really knock this thing right over."

The commission agreed not to stop contracts already awarded for the northern portion of the roadway, but public works officials were directed to meet with Maxfield to discuss possible solutions.