Nevada has the worst roads in the West.
Mr. Mojave
this group. After all, the Silver State's highways are notoriously
well-maintained, especially in rural areas, where roads are generally
straight, level, wide and frequently resurfaced.
Yes, that is true. But there's another truth to Nevada's roads, too, and
that is that they are quickly exceeding their capacity.
On my recent journey to Reno, I did quite a bit of driving around
Western Nevada. What I found is this:
US 50:
This route connects Carson City to Fallon, east of which it is the
unofficial "Loneliest Road in America." The general course of the road
is this, populations listed are 2000 Census, traffic counts are points
between towns:
Carson City, 52,457
- Traffic Count: 26,900
Dayton, 5,907
- Traffic Count: 5,800
Silver Springs, 4,708
- Traffic Count: 2,321
US50A Split
- Traffic Count: 11,000
Fallon, 7,536
US 50 is a four-lane road to Dayton, but a two-lane road beyond that.
Driving from Silver Springs to Dayton, I found a steady stream of
traffic that would, under normal conditions on a midday Friday, be
impossible to pass in safely. Under adverse conditions or rush-hour
traffic, I can only imagine how bad the road is.
Furthermore, NDOT has not planned more than a diamond interchange for
the US 50/I-580 interchange in Carson City. Considering that 26,000
vehicles daily are already using that portion of road, and more will
inevitably follow, a prudent choice would have been to pre-plan a direct
connection to the Interstate.
US 395/I-580:
So kudos for NDOT for finally getting this project off the ground. This
will cut at least 10 minutes off the drive from Carson City to Reno,
which is becoming increasingly a commuter's option.
But what about beyond that? I-580 is slated to end at the south end of
Carson City, at the US 50 West junction. But it's slated to feed
straight into US 50, not US 395 (the through route.)
Again, consider:
Carson City, 52,457
- Traffic Count: 56,500
US 50 Jct
- Traffic Count: 58,500
Johnsonlane, 4,837
- Traffic Count: 31,000
Minden-Gardnerville, 6,500
- Traffic Count: 24,000
Gardnerville Ranchos, 11,054
- Traffic Count: 8,900
(Points South)
But NDOT has done no advance planning to connect I-580 down to Douglas
County, which has a population of 41,000 now, and g.rowing quickly. US
395 is a 2-lane road through parts of Gardnerville.
Which leads me to my final point:
Connecting Las Vegas and Reno.
This has got to be done. ADOT has made great strides in connecting
Phoenix and Las Vegas. We're quickly approaching the point where Western
Nevada (pop. 560,000 w/in 60 miles of Reno on the Nevada side of the
border) and Southern Nevada (pop. 1,715,000 in Clark County) are even
worse-connected of metropolitan areas than Las Vegas and Phoenix.
On Saturday, a friend of mine left Reno at 6 a.m. and made it to Las
Vegas at 1 p.m. He took the standard route of I-80>US 50A(Another bad
route)>US 50>US 95.
On Sunday, I left Carson City at 9:30 a.m. and made it to Las Vegas by
4:30 p.m. I took the much more scenic, and less standard, route of US
395>CA 168>NV 266>US 95.
Sadly, more of that route was a freeway/expressway than US 95 through
Nevada.
Personally, I think that's the best option for connecting the two
cities. US 95 is an inefficient route that stair-steps its way through
Nevada. US 395 is much more direct. The three key bottlenecks: the
Walker River Canyon, Westgard Pass and Gilbert Summit, could easily be
dealt with by a four-lane expressway with a median, a tunnel where the
one-lane rock cut is, and a straightened rerouted road, respectively.
Frankly, the economies of Tonopah and Goldfield aren't worth saving
through US 95, and it's doubtful that a freeway bypass would help them
anyway.
So that's my two cents on my trip through Nevada.
To summarize, with some points I didn't make above:
- US 50 and 50A should both be divided highways with expressway bypasses
of major towns and ROW preservation.
- US 95A should be a four-lane arterial from Yerington to Fernley with
expressway facilities through rural areas.
- Nevada should immediately begin the EIS and ROW preservation process
to extend I-580 to south of Gardnerville.
- NDOT should begin building expressway facilities to the California
border at Topaz Lake and Dyer, and coordinate planning and funding to
connect the two by expanding CA 168 and US 395 to an expressway. Freeway
bypasses of Beatty, Bridgeport and Bishop should be constructed, and
freeway interchanges should be built at Amargosa Valley, Scotty's
Junction, US 395, Dyer, Big Pine, Lee Vining, Walker, Coleville, CA 89
and Topaz. ROW should be preserved at all intersections and upgraded to
grade separations as need warrants and funding becomes available.
Just one humble driver's opinion...
