Highway 50 road widening, safety plans at Lake Tahoe addressed at NDOT meeting
Submitted by editor on Thu, 06/01/2017 - 11:30am
A first step in what will be a multi-year Nevada Department of Transportation process began Wednesday at Zephyr Cove in Lake Tahoe. The subject: NDOT's plans for the stretch of Highway 50 from Stateline to Spooner Summit.
About double the expected maximum of 120 people crowded Zephyr Cove Elementary's multi-purpose room to view and listen to NDOT's plans, officially called the US50 Lake Tahoe Corridor Safety Improvement plan.
Statistics for the last seven years show the stretch of room has seen 682 crashes, 404 property damage incidents, 382 injury crashes and 12 fatalities. The road is in need of repaving and NDOT says they want to address safety issues in the process.
"This is the first step in public feedback," said Meg Ragonese, NDOT's Public Information Officer. "We are proactively looking at mobility and safety along Highway 50. Its a crucial first step."
That first step was something new to NDOT.
"This is not NDOT's normal process," said Kent Steele, Senior Designer for NDOT. "We usually bring a project to the public much later in the process. Because of where the corridor is, we're coming to you early to see what we can do to make the road safer."
"Its all about you," Steele told the crowd.
Steele said they were going to take all of the comments given during the public meeting and go back to the drawing board to create a plan incorporating ideas that they'll bring back to the public at the beginning of 2018.
On one of the conceptual display boards surrounding the room was six suggested lane configurations including one with two bike lanes, two lanes of travel and one center turn lane.
The overwhelming response from the crowd was, "Don't take our lanes away." While most want something done to make it safer, they also don't want to see just one lane in each direction.
Bill Killebrew grew up in the area and remembers when the paved road was just one of three on the South Shore (the others being County Road which is now Pioneer Trail and the California side of Highway 50).
"There are four elephants in the room tonight," said Killebrew. "TRPA, Nevada Parks, Douglas County and the Forest Service. Their study is based on the assumption that Highway 50 cannot be widened."
Others agreed that widening would solve the problem, addressing the safety needs while also keeping the traffic flowing.
"There are really three problems here," said Killebrew. "We have a parking problem. People want to go to the lake and the beaches. Parking will change the backup and traffic. The second is a left-turn lane problem. You can make a left turn lane without sacrificing four lanes. Third is the interface of pedestrian, bike and accessibility . We need a separate lane off the road for safety."
Possible solutions for safety and mobility also include roundabouts at Warrior Way and Spooner Summit, something that concerned many of those in attendance. Chairman of the Tahoe Douglas Fire Board of Trustees Bill Kirschner said he was worried about a hook-and-ladder fire truck not being able to quickly navigate a roundabout during an emergency.
"Your input is valuable," Steele told those gathered.
Dozens of other residents got up to speak and their comments will be put into the public record. A court reporter was on hand to record the conversations for NDOT and review.
Those not making comments Wednesday may make them by June 16, 2017 by e-mail at ksteele@dot.nv.gov or by mail to Kent Steele, NDOT design, at 1263 South Stewart Street, Carson City, NV., 89712.
See SouthTahoeNow.com for updates on this and other stories.
- Carson City
- $12
- 2017
- 2018
- Accessibility
- bike
- Board of Trustees
- California
- carson
- Carson City NV
- center
- City
- county
- Display
- Douglas
- Douglas County
- Drawing
- Emergency
- fatalities
- feedback
- fire
- forest
- highway
- information
- Injury
- input
- Lake
- May
- meeting
- mobility
- NDOT
- need
- Nevada
- Nevada Department of Transportation
- new
- News
- NV
- Parks
- Pedestrian
- Pioneer
- public
- Public Meeting
- Safety
- senior
- service
- Show
- south
- Stateline
- tahoe
- travel
- trpa
- truck
- Wednesday
- Zephyr Cove
- Forest Service
- Lake Tahoe
- Traffic
