By MARK WAITE

PVT

Public works crews got started reconstructing a two-mile segment of Gamebird Road Monday, thanks to economic stimulus funds.

Work on Homestead Road may not be far away.

The Nye County Capital Improvements Advisory Committee Tuesday unanimously endorsed a recommendation from Public Works Director Dave Fanning to widen Homestead Road to three lanes from Highway 160 to within 700 feet of Gamebird Road. The recommendation will be presented to the Nye County Commission at a later date.

The advisory committee is drawing up a list of priorities for spending impact fee money.

Fanning said the three-lane widening — which will include two regular travel lanes and an inside turn lane — would cost about $3.7 million to $3.8 million instead of $5.8 million for a five-lane road. The five-lane project would have included a bike lane and sidewalks.

The project would target a 1.5-mile strip of Homestead Road south toward Gamebird Road, just past Raven Street where the Homestead Storage and More mini-storage sheds are located.

It would be the largest expenditure of impact fee money since the ordinance was passed in 2005.

Assistant County Manager Pam Webster said there is a balance of $4.4 million in the impact fees dedicated to streets.

The county raised $3.6 million of impact fees dedicated to street improvements since 2005, for which Nye County added another $2.25 million, and $632,423 was accrued in interest. But the county already spent $699,978 on the Homestead Road traffic light with another $1 million needed to complete the permanent signal.

Preliminary engineering design on Charleston Park, Homestead and Manse roads ate up another $318,091. The county also spent $95,500 on straightening out Homestead Road in front of the Concordia Homes of Southern Nevada subdivision.

Fanning said the Homestead Road work stops just short of Gamebird Road due to the high cost of acquiring right-of-way.

“Every month that you wait on this, the cost is going up,” Fanning warned the board. He blamed economic stimulus package money for driving up road construction costs.

The county could stretch the funds a little more by building a three-lane road for now, which could free up some money to start work on other thoroughfares, Fanning said, specifically citing Manse Road.

“Is it difficult down the road to extend it to five lanes?” committee member Mark Kimball asked.

“Yes, you could,” Fanning replied. “Everything is built off the five-lane profile.”

County commissioners approved a $195,700 fourth change order with PBS&J in September 2009 to prepare preliminary engineering design plans for that segment of Homestead Road. The county spent $827,566 with the firm to prepare engineering designs for several roads and the Homestead traffic light in addition to the Homestead Road design work.

An audience member inquired whether a bike lane could still be built. Fanning said there would be nowhere for the bike traffic to be diverted at the end of the widening. The three-lane section would begin tapering off at Raven Street until it merged into the two lane section.

Rick Walker, the chairman of a former capital improvements board, was worried about drainage with only a three-lane road. Fanning said a major flood could overtake the outside lanes but leave the inside lane passable.

Committee member Pablo Encinias said it made more sense from a cost-benefit standpoint to build a three-lane road with the existing funds.

The projection is for Homestead Road to have an average daily traffic load of 22,800 vehicles in the near future. Fanning said new developments on the south end will feed traffic onto the roadway, but it’s unclear when the economy will pick up again.