Carson City’s freeway bypass to close Monday night, possibly Tuesday night

Carson City’s new freeway bypass will close briefly for work next week, and the freeway extension will be finished by 2017, the Nevada Department of Transportation’s director says.

Director Rudy Malfabon divulged some details of NDOT’s decisions both on the closure, set for one or two nights next week, and his thoughts on completing the freeway bypass south of the Fairview Drive exit. His thoughts on both kept his audience’s attention. He appeared at the Carson Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (CAMPO) meeting Wednesday.

“We’re going to do that work at night,” Malfabon said of closure for immediate flush seal work to the Fairview Drive exit. It is set for either Monday or both Monday and Tuesday.

“This route is the most straightforward to be followed for those not familiar with the street network,” Pittenger said.

Malfabon pledged to have a bid-letting for freeway extension by 2015, with work to follow in 2016. He voiced hope that the work can be finished in two construction seasons.

He also talked of altering the planned interchange where the bypass hooks up with U.S. Highway 395 at the south edge of the city, which is where Carson Street/395 reaches the Highway 50 turnoff to South Lake Tahoe. The current interchange design goes back a few directors and might need revision to aid vehicles heading south, Malfabon said.

“We do have it on our radar screen,” Malfabon said of the freeway extension. He even talked of shifting things around to make certain of progress. “It’s just: What other projects are going to be put on hold?” he said.

Carson City Supervisor John McKenna, a CAMPO member, said getting the freeway paving done past Fairview and down to what will become the intersection north of Bodines Casino is more important than the type of interchange that goes there.

Malfabon seemed agreeable, though he voiced the need for some revisions to the interchange plan. He called the massive flow of trucks and other traffic now heading west on Fairview Drive from the current freeway’s end, on west to Carson Street, “not a good situation to have.”

Malfabon also told a reporter that if his two-work-season prediction works out, “by the end of ’17 it should be open to traffic.”

To CAMPO members, Malfabon said his department has $310 million or more from the federal government, plus state money, but is working to “keep a balance of $90 million” going forward.

He also reported that through June 11, the 117 Nevada highway fatalities amount to six fewer than on the same date in 2012.

And Malfabon said Assembly Bill 18, which is becoming law and revises how the state relinquishes roadways to local government units, has his department working with the Nevada Association of Counties and the Nevada League of Cities and Municipalities to handle such exchanges properly.

“The key there is to have equity,” he said. He also noted during his remarks the previous relinquishment of Highway 395/Carson Street in Carson City to city government and noted he is interested in local changes that might come as a result.