Monday, May 22, 2006 | 7:17 a.m.
If some Boulder City officials get their way, Las Vegas Valley residents wanting to take a shortcut to Arizona will have to pay to pass through the city.
It's not part of any money-making venture to fatten the city's treasury. Rather, it's one option to generate funds and speed construction of a freeway bypass that otherwise might not begin until 2025.
Boulder City Council members are expected to ask the state Transportation Department this week to study the feasibility of operating as a toll road a $300 million, 10-mile section of the bypass between U.S. 95 and a bridge downstream from Hoover Dam.
The idea was first floated earlier this year by Mayor Robert Ferraro.
"We definitely need to do a study because there are not enough funds for this project, and we have to find another way to do it," Boulder City Councilman Roger Tobler said.
That was echoed by other city officials who, like Tobler, fear the opening of the new bridge in 2008 will bring 2,000 trucks a day roaring through the community on U.S. 93. The trucks were diverted onto U.S. 95 after Hoover Dam was judged to be a safety threat after 9/11.
Boulder City also will consider whether to ask the Transportation Department to divert up to $10 million in bypass funds to build an overpass that would help the city's residents cross U.S. 93 at Lake Mountain Drive. The thinking behind that idea is that an overpass could be built more quickly and for less money than the bypass, thereby bringing traffic relief to the city sooner.
Last year, 15,000 vehicles a day passed through Boulder City on U.S. 93 near Lake Mountain Drive. That number is expected to rise to 20,000 in 2008 and ever higher in the future if developers follow through with plans to build tens of thousands of homes across the border in Arizona.
Operating the bypass as a toll road would require a change in state law. Although state officials have expressed doubts about the toll road idea, the Regional Transportation Commission supports the $120,000 study, said spokeswoman Tracy Bower.
"We are waiting to see what the council asks, but that is definitely in the realm of possibility," added Scott Rawlins, the bypass' project manager with the Transportation Department. Any study would be paid for with federal funds already designated for the bypass, he said.
Boulder City officials recognize the bypass would not carry enough traffic to build it solely with bonds paid off by tolls, but also are motivated by the knowledge that any additional money could help to move up the project's start date.
That has opened the door for Boulder City officials to resurrect a proposal to fund some of the bypass by selling the 1,531-acre city-owned Dutchman Pass area.
"I still think that's the best option," Councilman Mike Pacini said. "We have to do something."
Boulder City has proposed using Dutchman Pass as part of a three-way swap involving a developer and the Bureau of Land Management. But that swap looks increasingly doubtful, potentially freeing up the property for a possible sale for bypass funding.
Under a proposed November ballot measure, Dutchman Pass would be included in the proposed sale of 107,000 acres of city land, with the majority of the proceeds being divided among residents and some of the revenue going to fund the bypass. Boulder City, however, is expected to go to court to keep the measure off the fall ballot.
While the plan to request a study on the possible toll road appears to have council support, council members seem divided on whether to ask the state to use bypass funds for the possible U.S. 93 overpass.
"I think it will ruin the views," Councilwoman Andrea Anderson said. "And if we get that drastic, we may never get the bypass."
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