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Reps. Xavier Becerra (D-Calif.) and Dina Titus (D-Nev.) speak at a news conference in Henderson Thursday, August 5, 2010. Officials heralded the completion of the Green Valley Parkway repaving project, which was paid for with federal stimulus money.
By Kyle B. Hansen (contact) 
Thursday, Aug. 5, 2010 | 7:42 p.m.
Some of Henderson’s busiest roads have gotten a makeover courtesy of federal stimulus money.
Officials held a press conference Thursday morning to show off the nearly-completed work on Green Valley Parkway.
The old asphalt on 3.1 miles of Green Valley Parkway, from the railroad tracks near Warm Springs Road to Horizon Ridge Parkway, was milled down and replaced.
Federal money paid for similar improvements on American Pacific Drive, between Stephanie Street and Gibson Road, and on Stephanie Street near Sunset Road.
Stimulus money also paid for reconstruction of Volunteer Boulevard from Executive Terminal Drive to the edge of the Anthem community.
Parts of Green Valley Parkway may not have seemed in need of resurfacing, but officials said the road was built in phases as the community developed and some sections are more than 15 years old.
The section of roadway from the Las Vegas Beltway to Warm Springs was one of the highest generators of complaints to the city, and it is more cost efficient to redo the entire road at once, City Engineer Jonna Sansom said.
Plus, the $2.1 million project is expected to save the city money, and headaches, later.
“By doing a mill and overlay on Green Valley Parkway, we avoid having to do a full reconstruction later, which is much more costly,” Sansom said.
That type of reconstruction is exactly what had to be done to Volunteer Boulevard, which had major cracks and potholes because the asphalt was only 2 inches thick, Sansom said.
Officials thought Green Valley Parkway had a 5-inch layer of pavement, but once work started, they discovered it also was only 2 inches thick, making the work even more important, Sansom said.
The road now has asphalt that uses recycled rubber, including old car tires, which makes for a smoother, quieter ride. The rubber reduces noise by about 15 percent, Sansom said.
“The public now has something that they’ll be able to benefit from for decades to come,” said Jacob Snow, the general manager of the Regional Transportation Commission.
American Pacific Drive and Stephanie Street also got the rubber asphalt, and those projects were done on time and on budget, Sansom said.
Volunteer Boulevard is the only one of the projects still undergoing major work, but it should be done in October, Sansom said.
In addition to the improvements for motorists, the message from officials was the economic benefits of the projects, which were funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
U.S. Rep. Dina Titus, the Democrat who represents Henderson and is in a close race with Republican Joe Heck, conducted the press conference.
“These are projects that are so important to the economy of Nevada,” she said. “We’re proud to brag about the fact that we’ve gotten such good dollars here in Southern Nevada.”
Nevada received about $200 million for road projects and about $50 million for transit projects from the stimulus act, Titus said. That created 1,600 jobs, she said.
“We know it’s not going to happen overnight, we know that this recovery will be long and hard, but certainly this is a good investment and a way to start moving in the right direction,” she said.
Henderson Mayor Andy Hafen also credited the stimulus funds for improvements to the economy.
Thanks again, Congresswoman Titus! Green Valley Parkway looks great. It's good to see our tax dollars actually put to work for a change.
Stimulus dollars should be used for projects that bring real jobs and a future not R&R projects that were already paid for with gas tax,federal heavy use taxes(2290)and maintenance budgets that were pillaged by the same politicians(Titus,Reid and every other elected jerk) to fund welfare,illegal immigrants and budget short falls....We need a WPA like project like Hoover Dam,TVA Project to get us back on top not this slap in face..It's like being robbed and thanking the crook for giving you back your credit cards while keeping your cash!!
Wish they would reroute the tram.
They take the dollars and send back pennies and want us to say thank you. Ridiculous.
Time to build Interstate 11 from Phoenix to Las Vegas to Reno to Boise, Idaho.
I have driven on the new recycle rubber pavement. It is much quieter. This is a good step in making Nevada a better place to live.
what jobs did this create.... didn't but just keep those on county payroll still working at 40 to 60 and hour. and we have how many unemployed .... wonder how many that would of hired at the independant owner rate... hum
yeah keep spending those checks are going to bounce pretty soon
Unbelievable waste of tax dollars;
http://mccain.senate.gov/public/index.cf...
I wonder how much of our tax dollars went to pay for that sign and it probably was not even made here in Nevada.
A lot of waste in that stimulus plan. Hundreds of thousands of dollars per job DIRECTLY created, and that doesn't even take into account that many of those jobs were part time. CNN was doing a special on the wasteful projects for a little while, but I haven't seen it recently. I went through the list when it was first announced and was shocked at how they were spending the money. They should have been much more specific with it, rather than trying to rush it out the door and make it look like they were taking action and responding to the economic crisis.
We need to attract different types of jobs in Nevada. Not just focus on transportation related projects. There's enough waste there already, without the federal stimulus dollars.
My house is right off Green Valley. They admit they spent millions and millions of borrowed money to pay for fixing a road that for the most part wasn't broke. The oldest part of the road is upto 15 years. The road was fine.
So now we have to pay back all this money plus interest. How is this road going to make money so we can pay back the loan?
LV Paving has this contract and seemed like they took a long time to get the road put in. The road is a little nicer, but deffinitly not worth the money, far from it.
Titus said well enjoy the road for decades. If the oldest road was only 15 years why replace? 1600 jobs? 1600 jobs for a cpl roads? Sounds fishy
Nickeljuice, did you vote for George W. Bush and/or Jim Gibbons? If so, your questioning Dina Titus's ability to speak English has as much credibility as Lindsay Lohan giving tips for clean living.
And they are still using the same lousy interior latex paint for the lane markings. The road may be around for decades, but the lane markings will be virtually invisible by the end of the year.
I certainly hope that someone investigates and reports who was the inspector that approved the 2" asphalt installed in lieu of the 5" asphalt designed. Seems criminal to me.