Panel pushes better coordination on valley roadwork

Stephen Curran

Wednesday, March 30, 2005 | 10:44 a.m.

A pattern of unexpected roadwork that frequently brings Las Vegas-area traffic to a screeching halt could be eased if various agencies communicate more, according to a Regional Transportation Commission oversight committee.

The RTC's Citizens Advisory Committee has proposed a plan, which, if passed, would require the commission to more fully cooperate with the state Transportation Department and other government agencies.

The proposal, Senate Bill 322, would cut down the number of road closures and give drivers a better sense of what is closed and for how long, supporters say.

Under the bill, any agency, subcontractor or utility would have to provide "accurate and comprehensive information" regarding when and where any road closures would occur and what alternate routes are available to motorists.

Few additional specifics are written into the bill, which would require the agencies more clearly spell out the length of the closure and possible detours around it.

Andy Maline, a local real estate broker and member of the citizens committee, said the effort would help local utilities better coordinate their efforts to reduce the number of road closures brought by underground digging.

The committee intentionally left the language within the bill vague, which Maline said members felt would allow them to "add teeth" to it in future legislative sessions.

Maline said he expects the Senate Transportation and Homeland Security committee to review the bill April 13.

"The utilities really need some oversight," he said, adding that a string of unorganized roadwork projects have kept many thoroughfares closed up to a half dozen times a year. "They are pretty much doing their own thing at will. It's maddening."

Among the most frustrating was a string of unexpected closures on Durango Drive in previous months as workers have added or corrected myriad utility-related concerns, Maline said. If passed, future additions to the bill would also require contractors to rent lanes from the public agencies prior to closure and pay increased fees when the lanes stay closed after the posted deadline, he said.

That idea has "literally gotten applause" from the various citizen groups to whom Maline and other committee members have presented the findings, he said.

It's the kind of public support the committee will need if the bill is to pass, Maline said.

Commissioner Bruce Woodbury, who chairs the RTC, said he favored charging rent to contractors performing work on road lanes although he did not think a statewide mandate would make road projects progress more smoothly.

The longtime commission chairman said he had not yet read the bill but that some of the recommendations might take away the flexibility needed in large-scale road projets.

"I like that (charging contractors rental fees) a lot if we can find a workable way of doing it," Woodbury said. "... There's a lot of room for improvement in the way the contractors feel they have to shut down lanes of travel and I think a lot of people don't think it's necessary because they don't see people working. There's a lot of things in that area that need a lot of improvement."

The citizens advisory committee worked for 18 months, coming up with 14 recommendations it made to the RTC. The committee last fall sent those recommendations to the Legislative Counsel Bureau, which turned it into a bill draft.

Woodbury said he did not expect the committee's recommendations to surface as a legislative bill.

"I think the bill is obviously well-intentioned and the citizens advisory committee is a good group of people who are trying to help us," he said. "I don't think we need a statewide mandate. These are the types of issues that are better handled on the local level."

Government agencies are concerned about the added burden on already strained resources of forcing the agencies, such as the RTC and the state Transportation Department, to communicate.

Bobby Shelton, a spokesman for Clark County Public Works, said there was "always room for improvement" in interagency cooperation but that a potentially redundant law would add to an already strained public workforce.

In addition to current duties, employees would be expected to update and monitor multiple projects across numerous city, county and state agencies, he said.

"You're looking at one or two people having to coordinate something that would be very tedious and very time consuming," Shelton said. "Sometimes projects change in a four-hour window and sometimes they don't change for four months. You'd need additional manpower at this level."

Others, including Las Vegas Public Works Director Richard Goecke, questioned whether enacting a law requiring the public agencies to perform what are already established practices was necessary.

Las Vegas Public Works is currently the only public agency that each day provides Metro Police traffic officers a comprehensive list of its construction projects, Sgt. Tracy McDonald of the department's traffic detail said.

The list is included in the daily "briefing book," a binder detailing changes to state laws and department memos distributed each day to officers beginning their shifts, he said.

Otherwise, officers are left to learn of traffic closures and delays through local media, McDonald said.

But McDonald said he is not convinced a law would help get fast-changing traffic information to his officers in time.

"We're used to projects being announced and then being delayed," he said. "We don't really blame these agencies because we understand that construction is just a part of living in Las Vegas."

RTC spokeswoman Ingrid Reisman said, if passed, the law would possibly redouble efforts by the agency's Utilities Coordination Committee, a 19-agency group created in 1992 whose members include Clark County Public Works, the Regional Flood Control District and Southwest Gas.

The city agency currently tries to coordinate with other utilities to reduce delays caused by projects, but a provision within the bill limiting the number of concurrent projects could dramatically slow traffic improvements within the valley, Goecke said.

"The level to which they would like to see things happen may not always be possible on certain projects," he said. "I don't know that it's always possible. Some of these projects, they take a long time."

Scott Magruder, a spokesman for the state Transportation Department, said he was unsure how the proposed law would differ from existing department policies. As it stands, NDOT has a staff of professionals whose job it is to meet with local utilities and county agencies to try and preclude redundant efforts. Those staffers meet roughly once a month with those representatives, he said.

Meanwhile some of the delays and setbacks are "unavoidable" given the fast-growing nature of Southern Nevada, Magruder said.

Reisman said the county agency was unsure what specific changes the vaguely worded bill would require.

"The RTC has been supportive of anything that will communicate to commuters so they can make informed decisions about their commute," she said. "I'm just not sure we're convinced it takes a legislative mandate."