Officials seek highway transportation solutions between Lyon and Reno

SILVER SPRINGS - Area officials would like to see a shorter trip between central Lyon County and Reno.

Lyon County commissioners have added their support to Storey County's request for the state to build a new road from the Patrick interchange on Interstate 80 to the Ramsey Cutoff on Highway 50 near Silver Springs. It would pass through the former Ramsey mining district and over two mountain ridges.

Speaking to the Lyon County board, Storey County Building and Planning, Administrator Dean Haymore said the route, accessing the sprawling 102,000-acre former Asamara Ranch property, would be approximately 17 miles long.

The first three miles into the new Tahoe Reno Industrial Park are currently under construction and have already been identified as state highway, according to Haymore.

"Seven miles will be completed in Storey County in the next three to seven years. With undeveloped land still remaining around the Silver Springs cemetery, this is a good time for Lyon County to start planning," Haymore said. "When completed it would become a bypass for all of central Lyon County and considerably cut the traffic flow through Fernley."

Commissioner David Fulstone agreed with the concept of shortening the travel distance to Reno for central Lyon residents.

"I support this. It brings Lyon County a whole lot closer to the Reno/Sparks I-80 area. It would be a good thing for the county and Churchill County would also benefit," he said.

When fully built out, the Tahoe Reno Business Center will add approximately 20 million square feet to northern Nevada's 42.7 million square feet of industrial properties. It will be one of the largest industrial areas in the country.

Audrey Allen, with the State Commission on Economic Development Block Grant program, said the proposed road would make the jobs created within the industrial park, currently being filled by Washoe County residents, more readily available to Lyon County residents.

Plans show 9.6 miles of the road would be in Storey County and 7.6 miles in Lyon County. The route is part of a 25-year area master plan agreement between Storey County and Reno Tahoe Industrial Center developers.

Haymore said it should take between 10 to 11 years to complete the road if planning comes together with county, state and federal agencies.

However, Nevada Department of Transportation Program Development Manager Kent Cooper on Monday said there is no project on the books at this time.

"If it did happen it would be a long ways away, but this a beginning point. It is the current assumption that the widening of Highway 50 to Silver Springs and 95A from Fernley to Fallon are higher priorities," he said. "We do go out to the counties to hear what they want for future projects and this is something that has been talked about in the past, but there is no planned project at this time."