Volunteer Blvd. could be widened by fall

By Frances Vanderploeg (contact)

Sunday, Feb. 22, 2009 | 10 p.m.

Volunteer Boulevard, the main route students living in Madeira Canyon and Anthem Highlands would use if they are moved from Coronado High School to Liberty High School next year, is likely to be widened and improved by fall, Henderson city officials said.

Parents in those communities have objected to the move because of concerns about buses and inexperienced teenage drivers using Volunteer Boulevard and Executive Airport Drive to get to and from school, especially in the early morning or late evening.

They cite poor lane markings, no shoulder and poor lighting on the road, which currently has road cones in place of painted lines. Additionally, they said, it is labeled for construction traffic only, and unsafe for buses and teens.

Volunteer is scheduled to be rehabilitated, and likely will be now that the economic stimulus package has passed, said Jonna Sansom, a city engineer with Henderson Public Works, said.

“We do want to make Volunteer as safe as we can,” she said.

Henderson is expecting to receive about $6 million in road money from the economic stimulus, she said. Assuming that money is received in the next couple of weeks, the road will be finished before school begins in the fall, she said.

Among the work planned to be done is milling the surface, overlaying it and putting down center and edge lines, she said.

The road is a public right-of-way and should not be marked for construction traffic only, she said.

Volunteer is already used to transport students living near Liberty to Del Webb Middle School.

A team of Clark County School District transportation investigators are out every day patrolling routes and ensuring they, and the bus drivers, are safe.

“It’s got to be safe,” Doug Geller, acting director of transportation, said. “(Investigators are) out all the time.”

The team responds to complaints from drivers, parents and community members regularly, and if a route is found to be unsafe, an alternate route will immediately be developed, he said.

“We do not do unsafe busing,” Geller said. “Our record of going over even dirt roads, which we have done, is 100 percent safe.”

Frances Vanderploeg can be reached at 990-2660 or frances.vanderploeg@hbcpub.com.