The State board of Finance on Tuesday approved issuing $100 million in bonds to fund projects including the start of the I-580 project between the Mount Rose Highway and Washoe Valley.
State Transportation Director Tom Stephens said $18 million of the total will go toward design of the project and to buy right of way.
The rest of the money will be dedicated to a project widening U.S. 95 in Clark County.
He said he hopes to issue those bonds before the end of the year to get the project started.
Stephens said that will be accompanied by $10 million for the project Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., managed to get added to Nevada's FY2001 transportation appropriations.
Reid said that brings the total Nevada appropriation for FY2001 to $293 million. But Stephens said that includes a total of $55 million which NDOT had applied for but didn't budget for in funds earmarked for specific projects.
In addition to the $10 million for the freeway between Reno and Carson City, the biggest piece of the added money is $20 million to start the bypass bridge project around Hoover Dam on the Colorado River south of Las Vegas.
"Sen. Reid has outdone himself again in bringing home the highway money to meet the demands of Nevada's growth," said Stephens.
Reid, who sits on the Transportation Appropriations Subcommittee, was a member of the conference committee which ironed out the final version of the transportation bill.
In addition, a total of $2 million will pay to help convert the bus fleet at Lake Tahoe to operate on compressed natural gas. And the package includes $510,000 for bin walls at Lake Tahoe. Stephens said the existing metal wall structures which help hold up Highway 50 along the shoreline in the basin are corroding and must be replaced.
The bulk of the funding is the $210 million NDOT gets under the TEA-21 federal highway fund formula. That money is used to build and maintain statewide road projects.
