Red Rock drive could face closures

Friday, Jan. 18, 2002 | 10:03 a.m.

The scenic drive at the Red Rock Conservation Area could be closed as many as 65 days per year by 2021, a recently released BLM study says.

Traffic congestion and limited parking forced the closure of the popular one-way drive for just two days last year. But the gates could be shut more often in the coming years if the area continues to grow at its current rate.

Of the 750,000 to 800,000 vehicles that traversed the canyon drive last year, an average of more than 2,000 cars packed the 13-mile road each day. Only 570 parking spaces are available along the drive, which, if traveling 35 mph, takes less than an hour.

The study by Robert Peccia & Associates of Helena, Mont., offers four options -- which range from taking no action to implementing a full-service bus system to take visitors on the canyon drive -- to solve traffic problems.

The most costly option is an $11.7 million plan to provide bus service at five-minute intervals, build extra parking spaces and add passenger shelters and a maintenance building.

The BLM study also says an 8-acre parking lot would be needed to accommodate vehicles after 2021, Arnesen said.

"It leaves BLM a lot of options," Gene Arnesen, who oversees the Red Rock management plan, said of the study.

BLM, which manages about 198,000 acres in the Red Rock Canyon area alone -- including roads leading to Mount Charleston and Lee Canyon -- will prepare a plan, soliciting community input along the way.

The BLM since December 1997 has collected fees -- currently $5 for cars and $2 for each motorcycle entering the canyon -- BLM spokesman Phil Guerrero said. The fees total about $1 million per year, and the area also receives an annual federal budget of $700,000 to $900,000, which goes toward salaries and the repair and upkeep of trails and facilities.

However, vehicle fees and the annual budget wouldn't be enough to cover annual maintenance if a bus service was implemented, he said. Maintaining a bus fleet alone would cost an estimated $1 million a year.

Another solution would be for the Citizens Area Transit -- public bus system -- to expand urban service to the canyon, according to the report.