Main Street ‘substantially complete’

The cones were gone from Highway 395 between First Street and Gilman Avenue on Saturday morning in a step toward having the highway fully open on Monday for the start of school.

However, lunchtime traffic was backed up between Gilman and Waterloo Lane, where it was constricted to two lanes in places.

Highway construction was declared “substantially complete” on Thursday as workers put the final touches on the highway that serves as Gardnerville’s Main Street.

The road remained at two lanes during Thursday’s Main Street Wine Walk.

“Although we had hoped for a clear, cone-free path, the traffic control worked in our favor by creating a more pedestrian-friendly experience,” Director Jen Tune said in her newsletter on Friday. “I cannot stress enough how thankful we at Main Street Gardnerville are for the opportunity to be a community partner in this major Highway reconstruction project.”

Before dawn on Friday, there were still cones guiding traffic into two lanes through Gardnerville.

There are still some crosswalks that have yet to earn their stripes.

“Drivers will continue to see brief lane, sidewalk, and intersection closures for finishing work such as flashing pedestrian crosswalk installation up through the Labor Day weekend,” according to the text which thanked the community, businesses and drivers for their patience.

While the highway has been essentially torn up and repaved over the last two months, work trenching for utilities along the route has been underway for more than a year.

While work on Main Street will be wrapping up in the near future, Highway 395 through the Pine Nuts is continuing.

Further south, the California Department of Transportation plans to close the highway for two weeks starting on Sept. 4 to install a wildlife crossing near Sonora Junction.