Better high school access sought

Adrienne Packer

Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2002 | 9:18 a.m.

Clark County officials hope providing better access to Centennial High School will discourage students from using dangerous construction truck routes where a 16-year-old student was killed a month ago.

The only ingress and egress to the 4,000-student northwest high school is Centennial Parkway.

Not only are neighborhoods being built around the school, but construction of the newest stretch of the Las Vegas Beltway will soon begin. Clark County Commissioner Chip Maxfield said he fears the increasing amount of construction trucks lumbering to and from the beltway site might pose a danger to student drivers.

Maxfield requested that county traffic engineers find alternative routes for students. Once new routes are identified or plans are developed to pave dirt roads to create new routes, a video of the safest courses to travel will be issued to Centennial High School.

"We want to open up access points to Centennial to alleviate the congestion occurring there," Maxfield said. "I think there is some frustration with only one access (route)."

Ryan Sneed was killed and three other students were seriously injured Aug. 30 when Sneed ran a stop sign at Alpine Ridge Way and Lansford Road and collided with a gravel truck. Lansford Road is a primary route for construction trucks.

Whether Sneed left Centennial Parkway and scrambled for open back roads to avoid heavy traffic is unknown, but Maxfield fears the congestion on Centennial might drive students to veer off to more hazardous truck routes.

"No one likes to see these accidents," said Maxfield, who has two daughters who attend Centennial. "It's a concern for all of us."

Centennial principal Gerald Velasquez could not be reached for comment Monday. Metro Police detective Doug Nutton, who handled the Sneed accident, did not return a phone message.

Public Works spokesman Bobby Shelton confirmed that traffic engineers are studying traffic patterns near Centennial and exploring alternate routes.

Shelton said a new driveway to the school would be built along either Hualapai or Alpine Ridge Way. Because Hualapai will eventually become a major off-ramp from the beltway, Alpine Ridge is the more likely solution, Shelton said.

"We have no specific details that have been worked out or discussed," Shelton said. "We were given direction to look at it. Other than that we won't do anything until we're given further guidance."

Maxfield said he would like the video to be created by the end of the month. Construction of the leg of the beltway that stretches from Cheyenne to Lone Mountain is scheduled to begin this month.