Residents hear new plan for widening Blue Diamond Road

Tuesday, July 29, 2003 | 10:27 a.m.

About three dozen residents of the southern Las Vegas Valley came out Monday to see the latest plans for a new interchange on Interstate 15 and no one complained about the changes to the road.

"Widening Blue Diamond Road is fine, it's long overdue," resident Jodell Richter said, referring to the proposed widening of State Route 160 from two lanes to eight.

The biggest concern residents had was too much road development at once. Richard Shenberger, a member of the Enterprise Town Board, said he feared that the $75 million project would tackle Blue Diamond Road and Warm Springs Road at the same time.

"This can come none too soon," Sue Ross said, noting traffic was often backed up passed Decatur Boulevard.

"This should have been done before the dozen or 15 other housing developments going in," she said.

A proposed bridge spanning Union Pacific Railroad tracks is also a welcome improvement, Shane Ross said.

Nevada Department of Transportation officials filled a meeting room at the Enterprise Library with maps of the proposed project, showing the six-mile project in three phases, taking 18 months each.

It was the fourth informal meeting for the project, which has been under serious study for more than a year, John Bradshaw, NDOT Phase I manager, said.

In addition to widening the stretch of State Route 160, or Blue Diamond Road, from an initial six to eight lanes from Las Vegas Boulevard South to Rainbow Boulevard, the state is helping Clark County protect developers and roads from flash floods.

The proposed Lower Blue Diamond Detention Basin, nestled next to the Union Pacific Railroad tracks, could be six years ahead of its scheduled 2012 construction, Steve Merrill, NDOT principal design engineer, said.

Instead of waiting for the Clark County Regional Flood Control District, the Nevada Department of Transportation has good use for the soils, Merrill said.

NDOT, the railroad and Clark County have discussed a plan to dig out the detention basin's 1 million cubic feet of dirt and use it to widen the road, NDOT hydrologist Paul Frost said.