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StumbleOfficials celebrate start of $246 million highway project
Gov. Jim Gibbons speaks at the groundbreaking for the Interstate 15 South Design-Build Project on Wednesday.
Thursday, Feb. 18, 2010 | 2:05 a.m.
State transportation officials and local politicians joined Las Vegas Paving representatives in officially breaking ground for work on the Interstate 15 South Design-Build Project on Wednesday.
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State officials gathered in Las Vegas on Wednesday to mark the beginning of work on the Interstate 15 South Design-Build project.
Work on the project to widen the interstate from Silverado Ranch Boulevard to Tropicana Avenue has already started, but the event served as the official ground-breaking for the $246.5 million project.
It will include upgrades to the interchange with the Las Vegas Beltway, a new overpass at Sunset Road and the widening of overpasses at Warm Springs Road and Russell Road.
The project also includes improvements to the railroad overpass between Russell Road and Sunset Road and the interchanges at the beltway, Tropicana Avenue, Blue Diamond Road and Silverado Ranch Boulevard.
The improvements are partially designed to make access to Las Vegas and the resort corridor easier for people arriving from Southern California.
“Southern California represents about 25 percent of all of our business, so we have to make sure they can get here...to keep the tourism industry vibrant,” Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority President Rossi Ralenkotter said during the ceremony.
Most of the funding for the project, scheduled to be completed in March 2012, comes from hotel taxes through the LVCVA.
Included in the design for the project are a number of artistic elements at interchanges, especially at Russell Road, which will be a “gateway” to the region, officials said.
Over the past nine months, traffic from Southern California has been increasing, Ralenkotter said. “Transportation is the key to bringing business to Las Vegas,” he said.
But the project will also benefit locals who use the road and truckers who travel through the area, Nevada Department of Transportation Director Susan Martinovich said.
“It will help with the flow of people who want to go to the resort corridor and for people who want to go through it,” she said. “Driving can be frustrating, so the more we can do to eliminate that helps with quality of life.”
U.S. Rep. Shelley Berkley, D.-Nev., said the project will help locals and the economy in multiple ways.
“Not only will this project ease congestion, not only will it make it easier for all of us who are residents of Las Vegas to get around, it will also enhance our ability to attract more tourists to the community, and it most importantly is going to create and retain jobs that we need so desperately now because of the downturn of our economy,” she said.
U.S. Rep. Dina Titus, D.-Nev., who represents the area, agreed.
“In this economy if we can create jobs and build something that not only performs a good function today but lasts into the future, then we can’t lose,” she said.
Gov. Jim Gibbons said the project will benefit the economy.
“Projects like this are going to benefit all tremendously, not only in the ability to move traffic quickly and efficiently but also to allow for the economy to move forward, taking advantage of the new transportation in the corridor,” he said
Gibbons said the project’s use of the design-build method helps speed up construction and benefits people more quickly.
The project is the state’s second that allows the design and build phases to overlap instead of the traditional method of doing design, then putting the project out to bid, then beginning construction.
“We were very successful on the first (project), and I see no reason why we won’t be successful on this,” Martinovich said.
The first design-build project, which widened I-15 from the Spaghetti Bowl to Craig Road, was finished in December on budget and nearly 10 months early.
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Are the state authorities going to use e-verify to insure that all workers are U.S. citizens? Or are they going to pass the buck and leave it up to the contractors?
las vegas paving is union contractor. not out of state non union. keep our tax payer money to local company not out of stater
When using taxpayer funds, the county commission must award the project to the lowest bidder.
Let's see: an out of state company can do the job to the specifications, ship all their equipment in, and pay and house their workers - and STILL have a significantly lower bid than a local company?
Sounds like the local company was taking GREED to a whole other level. Either that, or their labor costs were so high because of the union.
And the crooked county commission tried to give extra taxpayer money away just to give the contract to the GREEDY local company. I smell KICKBACKS.
Good job to the judicial system for awarding the contract to the lowest bidder!
The county must award the contract to the lowest QUALIFIED bidder.
Fisher does crappy work. They always have, they always will. Anyone who doubts this should drive up Blue Diamond Road from I-15 to Durango.
LV Paving had the contract to do the work from the Interstate to Rainbow. Fisher had the contract to do the widening work at Buffalo. The road from the Interstate to Rainbow is wonderful. It's wide, flat, the elevations and super elevations are correct and the project was completed really quickly.
On the other hand, at Buffalo, where Fisher did the work, the lanes aren't level, they are already pot-holed, the lanes aren't even the same width, the elevations are wrong, and the project STILL isn't finished after almost 18 months.
The issue shouldn't be "union vs, non-union." It should be who is going to do the job the BEST, for the best price, so that it doesn't have to be repaired/replaced in 3 years. Fisher ISN"T that company.
The congestion on I-15 is caused by the CONSTANT UNNECESSARY CONSTRUCTION along the corridor, not over-capacity traffic!!!
BETTER USES FOR THE MONEY:
1) Complete the monorail to the airport to reduce traffic on I-15 AND the Strip.
2) Start laying down a rail line across the desert to connect us with our southern California tourist base.
Gibbons with dancing girls? Who does he think he is, Oscar Goodman? Were all his aides' wives busy?
This is another boon-doogle waste of taxpayer money, but I agree, it should have at least gone to a local company!
Somebody's getting a whole lot richer off this because there's no way it actually costs 1/4 billion dollars to shore up a few bridges.
so what does this do for the unemployed workers.... nothing? nothing has changed
You wonder why the rest of the country doesn't take Las Vegas seriously when at every high profile / serious governmental press conference the speaker is surrounded by show girls or a guy with a martini in his hand. I'm just saying...
why are we still using the "showgirl" as a symbol of las vegas?
shouldn't it be a foreclosure sign?