Stephen Curran

Wed, Feb 9, 2005 (11 a.m.)

Local government engineers are looking to widen almost 10 miles of North 5th Street as a way to alleviate the traffic jams that clog many of North Las Vegas's busiest roads during rush hours.

The Regional Transportation Commission in January reviewed a 17-month study to expand parts of North 5th Street from congested two-lane roads to a six-lane super-arterial that planners say would reduce commute times and keep traffic moving through the rapidly growing north end of the valley.

The commission is expected to vote Thursday on whether to allocate at least $10 million in funds from the Question 10 tax package passed in 2002 to test, survey, and reallocate key utility lines under the proposed route. If approved, it would push forward what could be a $188 million project in the next six to 10 years, Jerry Duke, the RTC's project manager, said.

When complete, the contiguous stretch of North 5th Street would carve a north-south path from Owens Avenue, across Interstate 15, along undeveloped land near the Las Vegas Beltway, Duke said.

Engineers, including Duke and North Las Vegas city officials who named the project their top transportation priority at an RTC meeting last month, have touted the project as a way for the county to curtail future strains on its transportation infrastructure before reaching crisis point.

"It stems the tide of new development coming in and encroaching on that right-of-way," he said. "... It's highly unusual to be able to successfully plan like this. What you're doing is retrofitting residential areas, so everybody on the study team is happy to be on it because we're breaking new ground."

A previous project in which the neighborhoods were in place before transportation planning caught up with development was along the Desert Inn arterial, where, beginning in 1994, a wider road had to be punched through once quiet neighborhoods, Duke noted.

The 5th Street expansion would create what traffic engineers call a super-arterial. It would expand existing portions of the roadway and add miles of new pavement. It will give North Las Vegas drivers an alternative to the city's limited north-south options, Duke said.

The new, six-lane roadway would accommodate an estimated 65,000 cars a day, compared with the 10,000 to 12,000 the existing portions of road can currently handle, he said.

The proposed road, with speed limits expected to reach or exceed 40 mph, is expected to shave between 15 and 18 minutes from the average southbound commute, Duke said.

Lt. Paul Womack, who leads North Las Vegas Police's traffic bureau, said he expects an expanded North 5th Street to clear the often-clogged stretch of I-15 that works its way through North Las Vegas and runs parallel to North 5th Street.

"It (the amount of traffic each morning on I-15) is amazing to me and the only reason I can think for that is all the people in the northern part of our city have one major freeway to commute on," Womack said. "It is not designed to handle that increased capacity."

Like almost any multi-million dollar transit project, the North 5th Street project hinges on funding. The RTC, using funds earmarked for new high-speed lanes in the 2002 Question 10 tax package, is expected to spend up to $100,000 to buy the necessary right-of-way.

While an official funding method has not been finalized, the remainder of the expected $188 million pricetag would likely come from a number of federal and local sources, a bureaucratic process that makes the likely completion date six to 10 years away, Duke said.

It's a process that could also prove dependent on fluctuations in the president's federal budget, which each year sets aside money for a number of projects in individual states. Congress on Monday began evaluating the $2.57 trillion 2006 budget, $57.5 billion of which will go toward the federal Transportation Department.

"I expect that (about) $180 million would break the local governments," Duke said. "If we can't put more than $25 million a year at the $188 million it could be six to 10 years, but if Congress gives us a sizeable portion of those funds (it could be sooner). It's the money, always."

Also high on the list of uncertainties is the role that could be played by a proposed regional fixed guideway system that proponents say could eventually link Henderson to North Las Vegas. An RTC committee formed late last year began reviewing four separate technologies, ranging from an extension of the agency's popular MAX bus service to three different light-rail technologies.

That committee is expected to make its recommendation to the RTC this summer.

As designed, the proposed North 5th Street super-arterial contains a dedicated lane for the RTC's popular MAX bus service and could be easily retrofitted to adapt to future train tracks to accommodate light rail, Duke said.

RTC General Manager Jacob Snow, in a presentation to the Southern Nevada Home Builders Association last Tuesday, described the project as a source of much-needed relief for the fast-growing valley.

Snow urged the builders to more carefully consider the county's long-term transportation plans when constructing the neighborhoods.

Erin Breen, director of UNLV's Safe Community Partnership and a frequent critic of pedestrian safety in the valley, said she was unfamiliar with the plan but reserved praise for the proposed expansion.

Similar roadways, such as the existing Desert Inn Road super-arterial, have made commutes easier for drivers but have contributed to the area's high number of pedestrian fatalities, she said.

"From a motorist's standpoint, they're wonderful because the traffic doesn't stop," Breen said. "But if it's constructed like the Desert Inn (super-)arterial, there's nowhere for a pedestrian to cross it."