Carson City asks for community input on East William Street project with survey, public meetings
Carson City is launching the East William Complete Streets Project and is looking for community input via a survey and two public meetings Feb. 1 and Feb. 8.
Project planners and engineers want community input prior to beginning the design and as a part of the feasibility study. The scope of the feasibility study begins at North Carson Street and continues east to the interchange of I-580, approximately 1.5 miles. The Feasibility Study will examine features including safety, beautification, traffic operations, and bicycle and pedestrian enhancements.
A survey and interactive comment map can be found at CarsonProud.com here.
To tie the project to the community, Carson City Public Works partnered with Carson High School’s advanced graphic arts class to design a project logo. Students submitted 23 logo’s and the City project team voted on the logo to be used to promote the project. Scroll on the photos to see the logo.
The city will also host two in-person events, at the Carson City Community Center, to receive comments. Attendees will be asked to follow current Covid directives. The events are:
— Tuesday, Feb. 1, 2022 from 8 to 9:30 a.m.
— Tuesday, Feb. 8, 2022 from 5 to 6:30 p.m.
The meetings will be held in the Carson City Community Center lobby 851 E William St, Carson City.
In November U.S. Senator Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) announced she helped secure $9.3 million in Department of Transportation funding for Carson City’s East William Street project.
Carson City was selected as the recipient of the $9.3 million RAISE (Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity) Grant from the US Department of Transportation.
The RAISE program focuses on investing in surface transportation projects that will have a significant local or regional impact and is one of the most competitive discretionary grant programs in the country, resulting in an approximately ten-to-one ratio of requests to available dollars in this year’s cycle.
The East William Street Complete Streets Project was 1 out of 90 projects awarded across the United States, according to a Dec. 1, 2021 news release from Carson City.
The funding will be part of an estimated $17.4 million construction project used to transform East William Street from a former, state-owned highway into an efficient, multimodal street. Stretching from Carson Street to the west to the I-580/William Street interchange to the east, the project will provide roadway, bicycle, pedestrian, safety, and beautification improvements through one of Carson City’s primary commercial corridors, the release states.
William Street project background
NDOT transferred East William Street to Carson City after the completion of the I-580 Freeway. Before the freeway was built, East William Street was a state highway, US Highway 50, serving as a major roadway to move vehicle traffic quickly through Carson City. The current roadway is wide, with traffic moving at higher speeds, and there are few bicycle or pedestrian amenities. In some sections, there are no sidewalks.
While traffic has decreased since the completion of the freeway, crashes have increased. The amount of travel lanes remain the same with four west of North Carson Street, and six lanes at I-580. Blocks are long, and intersections with protected pedestrian crossings are infrequent.
The result is a vehicle focused corridor with only minimal accommodations for pedestrians and bicyclists. The project’s planners and engineers are working to transform the corridor from a high-speed vehicle thoroughfare to a destination roadway shared by all users including drivers, cyclists, and pedestrians; otherwise known as a Complete Street.
Earlier this month, the Carson City Board of Supervisors awarded a contract with Nichols Consulting Engineers of Reno for feasibility and design services for the East William Complete Streets Project.