$500,000 to build road sound barrier

Jeff Libby

Friday, Nov. 16, 2001 | 11:20 a.m.

Highway officials said Thursday they will pay $500,000 to build sound barriers for a southwest Henderson neighborhood adjacent to one of the largest planned road widening projects in Southern Nevada.

St. Rose Parkway, currently limited to one lane in each direction for much of its six-mile stretch between Interstate 215 and Interstate 15, will probably be widened to eight lanes. There has been talk by the 1,000 residents of Southfork to initially limit the widening to six lanes initially.

Few state roadways in Nevada have more than six lanes. But highway officials say St. Rose Parkway is emerging as a major travel route connecting the southeast portion of the Las Vegas Valley with I-15. They expect 73,000 vehicles to travel that route by 2024. Today, about 12,000 cars and trucks travel it each day.

Earlier this summer state officials said they would not pay any of the cost to build the sound barriers because sound studies had shown that expected noise levels did not require them. The noise levels measured fell short in one area by 0.01 decibel, an amount engineers said was indiscernible to the human ear.

As part of the agreement between the state and the city, the highway department will not be asked to pay for sound barriers anywhere else along the six-mile corridor.

Construction on the $60 million project is scheduled to start in late 2002.