The base bid was for phase 1A which takes Muller Lane Parkway south from Buckeye Road to not quite to Toler Lane.
Work on the county’s portion of Muller Parkway will start outside the flood plain.
On Wednesday, members of the Regional Transportation Commission approved the $6.6 million base bid by Qualcon Construction for the first phase.
The company’s bid for the entire project was $11.58 million, around $1 million over the engineer’s estimate.
“We only awarded the base bid part of the project,” Transportation Engineering Manager Jon Erb said. “The remainder of the project will move forward once all the FEMA approvals are worked out.”
According to the contract, the contractor has until Dec. 31 to complete the first phase. The second phase won’t start until six months later is supposed to be substantially completed by Aug. 31, 2025, with all work done by Sept. 30, 2025.
According to the bid, work on the second phase isn’t to exceed $4.98 million, but that might change between now and next year depending on what happens with FEMA.
Muller Lane Parkway has been in the works for more than 30 years.
Touted as an alternate means to Highway 395 through downtown Minden and Gardnerville, truck traffic is barred from the route once it’s constructed.
The county is required to build two lanes across Park Ranch Holdings property by Dec. 31, 2025.
There are still some issues to work out on segments connecting the county’s portion to the existing segments of the Parkway between Highway 395 and Toler Lane.
The remainder south from Toler to Grant Avenue is scheduled to be constructed by the developer of Virginia Ranch.
A public hearing on an ordinance approving a zoning map change and planned development overlay on the 196-acre project north of the Gardnerville Walmart is May 2 before Douglas County commissioners, according to a legal notice posted in The Record-Courier.
Should commissioners approve the ordinance, builders could construct 470 single family homes and 172 cottages, accounting for 63 percent of the 1,020 approved total units.
There are still 29 acres of multi-family residential and some neighborhood commercial that won’t be included in the May 2 proposal.
Gardnerville Town Board members approved 4-1 removing a proposed maintenance yard from the project on April 2 in exchange for a 3.77-acre parcel west of Sawmill Road near Crockett Lane.
While outside the town boundaries, the site would provide room for the town’s garbage trucks. Town Board member Jim Park was the lone opponent. The town has a one-acre site on Main Street across from Kings Lane that is at capacity. With the possibility of adding at least 642 single family trash accounts to the town’s 1,884, Town Manager Erik Nilssen said the current yard won’t be big enough.
