Business operators along Carson Street are being told the reconstruction of the road will take place with a minimum of disruption over the next few months.
All work will be done between 8 p.m. and 6 a.m. to reduce the impact of having the street closed, according to the state.
The project - running from Hot Springs Road on the north to just south of the Stewart Street intersection - begins Monday with crews lowering manhole covers and repairing broken curbs. It is scheduled for completion by the end of October.
"I think it sounds good. If it goes well, it will show they learned a lesson from the last time 10 years ago," Steve Brown, owner of the Carson Cigar Company in the Main Street Atrium between Carson and Curry Streets, said.
A decade ago, Brown was part owner of Cactus Jack's Casino when a more comprehensive rebuilding of much of Carson Street took place. The 1990 project also was conducted at night, in response to business complaints about a 1989 rebuilding of the south part of Carson Street during daylight hours.
"The street was really torn up that time and some of our regular evening customers were choosing not to come in," Brown recalled.
But the current project will move quickly because it only calls for removing and replacing the top 2 inches of asphalt, Nevada Department of Transportation spokesman Scott Magruder said Tuesday.
"Though we won't see them removing asphalt until August, there will be lane closures at night starting next week," Magruder said.
The preliminary work will take a minimal amount of time at each location, he said. Of the nearly three-month-long project time frame, only two to three weeks will be spent on grinding off the old pavement and laying new asphalt, Magruder said.
Carson City Area Chamber of Commerce executive vice president Larry Osborne also said the proposals to mitigate the project's impact on business sound pretty well thought out.
"The NDOT is making a much better effort at coordinating with the community. The chamber was able to look at the project and have input as it was being planned," Osborne said. He said the chamber's transportation committee heard a presentation about the project at a meeting Tuesday morning.
"Everybody is sitting there and saying, 'Gee, we've heard all this before,' back before the earlier reconstructions," Osborne said. "We all know there are things that can affect the project. It's very contingent upon the weather, for instance. One cold snap could delay it and we know we can get those that time of year in this area.
"And we know that, even with the lane closures only a night, there will be times when we have backups. Most of the businesses have second access points to the rear or to side streets that they'll probably have to use.
"And we locals will probably choose to find other places to drive than Carson Street to get to those businesses," Osborne said.
He said the chamber is trying to get frequent updates of the project's progress and any schedule changes that happen, which could then be faxed to businesses along Carson Street to help them plan for street closures.
Measures to reduce disruption during Carson Street work
- Work will be done between 8 p.m. to 6 a.m.
- No more than one intersection will be closed at a time.
- No work will be done Friday and Saturday nights
- At least one lane each way will always be open
- Business driveways will only be closed 20-30 minutes as the road machine goes by
