Dipping into the future for roads

Thursday, May 4, 2006 | 7:30 a.m.

Worried more about the traffic congestion just around the corner than about the one far down the road, Boulder City officials are considering diverting millions of federal dollars earmarked for a bypass still decades away to make more immediate highway improvements.

With the 2008 opening of a bridge downstream from Hoover Dam expected to bring thousands of additional vehicles through the city, Boulder City residents would face nearly two decades of traffic headaches if they wait, as is currently the plan, for construction of the highway bypass to begin in 2025.

Quicker traffic relief can be achieved, officials believe, if some of the $42 million designated for the bypass is spent instead on improvements along U.S. 93, including one or more overpasses to help drivers cross the busy roadway.

"We all know the best solution is the bypass, but it's not programmed out until another 20 years from now," Boulder City Public Works Director Scott Hansen said.

"It's not going to sit well with Boulder City residents to wait another 20 to 30 years for the bypass when we are going to have a difficult situation with heavy truck traffic in the heart of town."

The new bridge will bring about 2,000 trucks a day from Arizona that had been diverted onto U.S. 95 through Laughlin since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks closed the dam to truck traffic.

Further worsening the city's traffic woes, planned developments in northern Arizona envision tens of thousands of new homes, many of them filled with people who will be commuting daily to Las Vegas.

If any improvements are made to U.S. 93, the funding would draw from some of the federal dollars targeted for the bypass project. And although siphoning off some of that money now could further delay the bypass, some city leaders find that to be an acceptable trade-off.

"I would rather they do everything they can to mediate the traffic concerns at this time when there is still a chance to do something," Mayor Robert Ferraro said. "If that means taking some of the money set aside for the bypass, so be it."

The idea is the latest alternative of many tossed out by Boulder City officials and residents to cope with the traffic.

In February, Ferraro proposed that the city sell a coveted piece of land to generate money that would allow the bypass to be constructed sooner. That plan is on hold.

A proposed ballot initiative by a Boulder City group to sell 107,000 acres of city-owned land in Eldorado Valley - with most of the proceeds going to residents - also would set aside funds for the bypass.

If funds are diverted to Boulder City road improvements, that is likely to put the community in competition with Henderson for the federal money already allocated for the bypass.

The Nevada Transportation Department plans to construct a $160 million, three-mile section of U.S. 93/95 between Henderson and Boulder City before proceeding with the bypass.

If Boulder City opts for overpasses, those additions could cost between $5 million and $15 million each, said Kent Cooper, assistant director of the Nevada Transportation Department, which would have to sign off on any plan.

"That would delay the implementation of the first phase" of the U.S. 93/95 project, Cooper said. "There's not enough money for that phase, let alone the second phase."

Last year, Boulder City asked the state Transportation Department to move the 10-mile section of the bypass - the section that could do most to help relieve its traffic - ahead of a three-mile section between Wagonwheel Drive in Henderson and Railroad Pass. State officials declined, citing the lower cost and higher accident rate for the three-mile section.

Henderson Public Works Director Bob Murnane said the city would not take a position on Boulder City's latest idea until it knows more about the effect of diverting money to Boulder City improvements.

"We would need to take a look at any delay and see if it creates a problem for us," Murnane said. "It is not a huge problem for us today."

The Boulder City Council is to meet with a state transportation official May 23 to discuss potential improvements to U.S. 93, including widening the roadway, extra turn lanes, traffic signals, speed limit changes, adding medians or overpasses and a road extension.

The Regional Transportation Commission conducted a study for the city to evaluate the effect of the extra traffic from Arizona, but city officials were not satisfied with the report and are expanding it to look at other data.

"It was about increasing capacity and speeds to allow more traffic up and back from Arizona," Hansen said. "That's not our objective. We don't want to do anything to make it harder for our residents to get back and forth across (U.S. 93)."

Meanwhile, Ferraro said his proposal for the city to fund the bypass by selling portions of Dutchman Pass will be on hold until at least fall. He said before proceeding, he must wait for a November ballot initiative that calls on the city to swap Dutchman Pass with property controlled by the Bureau of Land Management in a three-way deal to stop development in Eldorado Valley.

A recent city-conducted survey of Boulder City residents, however, shows that voters would need much more convincing before backing Ferraro's plan. Only 19 percent of respondents said the city should raise funds to accelerate the bypass timeline, while 31 percent said more study was needed.

But Ferraro believes more residents will back his plan once the bridge over the Colorado River opens in 2008 and they see the resulting truck traffic.

"I would have thought it (the number of people in favor) would be higher," Ferraro said. "But unfortunately a lot of people are complacent."