Henderson using $6.3 million in stimulus funds to repave streets

By Jeremy Twitchell

Thursday, April 16, 2009 | 11:34 a.m.

Henderson will repave three major streets in the coming months using $6.3 million the city stands to receive from the federal stimulus package.

The Henderson City Council unanimously approved the plan Tuesday and authorized the Public Works Department to put the projects out to bid.

Henderson will use $4.3 million to repave Green Valley Parkway from the Union Pacific Railroad line (a block south of Warm Springs) to Horizon Ridge Parkway, $1.1 million to repave American Pacific Drive from Stephanie Street to Gibson Road, and $900,000 to repave Volunteer Boulevard from the Henderson Executive Airport entrance to Sun City Anthem Drive.

“These are all arterials that are in dire need of milling and repaving,” Henderson Engineer Jonna Sansom said.

The city has estimated that the American Pacific project could cost as much as $1.4 million; funds from the city’s gas tax fund would be used to make up the difference if necessary.

Sansom said the city selected the projects because of strict guidelines associated with the stimulus money, which requires that the road being worked on is already on the city’s master road map, that the city own all the rights-of-way and that the work be done on a strict timetable.

Failure to do the work within that timetable, Sansom said, would mean losing the money. Henderson has taken extra care to make sure the projects will be ready, she said, by using city road funds to prepare the plans ahead of time.

“We’ve been working on the plans so that there’s no chance of losing the funds,” Sansom said. “We didn’t want to jeopardize anything, so we did the designs and hit the ground running.”

According to the Nevada Department of Transportation, which oversees the stimulus funds, Nevada will receive $201 million for road infrastructure projects. Of that, $40 million is tabbed for Clark County and its cities, $9 million will go to Washoe County and the remainder is for various statewide and rural projects.

In all, NDOT has identified $209 million in potential projects, but spokesman Bob Mckenzie said those numbers were based on engineer’s estimates and that the projects will likely come in under estimates in a competitive bidding setting. If not, he said, the state has available road funding to fill in the gap.