Rough road to repaving Main Street

You can feel Highway 395 get rougher as you cross from Minden to Gardnerville.

Repaving of Highway 395 through Gardnerville is expected to wait until 2023, at least, as highway officials work out the puzzle of drainage and utilities.

The project would strip pavement to a depth of 2 inches and repave from Waterloo Lane to First Street in Minden.

Predictions that the highway would be repaved this year appear increasingly unlikely to become reality.

“The project involves major hydraulics upgrades in an area of multiple existing utility lines,” State Transportation spokeswoman Meg Ragonese said Tuesday. “Hundreds of right of way permissions will also need to be secured, including for slivers of property where sidewalk and drainage improvements will be made.”

Ragonese said until all those rights of way are secured, including small sections of neighboring property, as well as relocation of multiple underground utilities, the timing on the project remains uncertain.

The state is also working on a plan to resurface the highway from Mono Avenue to the Carson City line, Ragonese said.

With two neighboring projects, the state proposes a phased plan to ensure there isn’t a severe traffic impact through both towns and the North Valley.

One of the issues is that in some instances Gardnerville’s storm drains are not very deep.

“Continuing coordination with utility providers and local governments will ensure that upcoming utility relocations and local drainage improvements effectively accommodate the future highway reconstruction,” Ragonese said.

The Town of Gardnerville has an improved drainage structure proposed for under the highway at the S Curve, with a large basin installed under Gardnerville Station to help reduce flooding there.

However, until the state is ready to make the connections under the highway that project remains on hold.

Estimated at $6 million, resurfacing the highway that serves at least 20,000 vehicles a day has been in the works for years.

The highway was last repaved in 2003 and proposals to repave it made news in 2019 when county commissioners complained to the state about its condition.

In response, the state repaved the worst spots on the highway in September 2019, but recent snows have resulted in new potholes on the route.