Carson City RTC OKs $400,000 in road work

Nearly $400,000 in additional Carson City street repair was authorized Monday, as was acceptance of the 60 percent downtown Carson Street makeover.

Those separate actions by the city’s Regional Transportation Commission dealt with street repairs across the city, plus the ongoing move to make Carson Street and the downtown core attractive for pedestrians and bicyclists by calming vehicular traffic. There also will be 90 percent design meetings in November by the RTC and the Redevelopment Authority Citizens Committee for additional public input.

Regarding the street crack and patch repairs program, City Manager Nick Marano was on hand in the audience as the program was outlined by Transportation Manager Patrick Pittenger.

While Pittenger said details of road work with general fund money are still being worked out regarding where and when. Marano, meanwhile, told the Nevada Appeal about $300,000 would be used for major crack work done by a contractor while $70,000 in other patching work would be handled by Public Works.

In a staff summary, the street repair were said to be those that “are responsive to resident concerns.” The Board of Supervisors earlier decided to use tax proceeds from last fiscal year that exceeded estimates for such repairs, with the estimate then figuring perhaps $300,000 would be available. The $370,000 figure meant tax receipts came in even higher than anticipated in the final months of Fiscal Year 2014-15.

Danny Rotter, project manager for the downtown makeover, in his presentation detailed the few changes from the 30 percent design stage and said the $8.9 million target budget for Carson Street work is on target. Design is expected to be finalized in 2015, with the contract set for February, 2016, with work commencing the next month. The plan is to get the Carson Street phase and a West 3rd Street community plaza done by Nevada Day on Oct. 30.

The project envisions wider sidewalks, bike lanes, three lanes for vehicular traffic, multiple trees and a couple of parking spaces on each block from 5th Street to William Street.

In other action, the RTC determined Sierra Nevada Construction, Inc., was the lowest bidder on a South Division Street road improvement project at a tad more than $276,000, plus a 10 percent contingency figure, and heard a report on the Oct. 3 tenth anniversary of the Jump Around Carson bus service. The service, according to the report, has provided more 1.5 million rides in the past decade.