Nevada highway 342 closed over safety concerns, Comstock residents call for answers
Submitted by editor on Tue, 02/10/2015 - 4:19pm
On Sunday afternoon Feb. 8 the Nevada Department of Transportation closed a two-mile stretch of Nevada Highway 342 in lower Gold Hill because of subsidence occurring adjacent to the steeply excavated Lucerne Pit, prompting a call for answers from angry residents of Gold Hill and Silver City.
CEO Corrado De Gasperis of Comstock Mining Inc, wearing a hard hat for the television camera, told Reno's Channel 4 "the road is absolutely safe and there are engineered benches in place even though they are hard to see in the picture." NDOT isn't buying it and will take the next several weeks to determine if it's safe to use or not. The road will be closed to all traffic during that time.
CMI's apologists say this was an area of known instability that CMI can't be blamed for. CMI's critics ask why no special precautions were taken then?
"Mr De Gasperis would have you believe that the mining activity has done nothing to compromise the highway," said long-time Gold Hill resident David Toll. "He says that the months of constant blasting and rumbling from heavy equipment have had no impact on the old shafts and tunnels. He says the vertical cut only a few feet from the road has not undermined the integrity of the highway. He says it's from mining done a 100 years ago. He's quite the comedian."
"The highway has been a particular source of friction," said Comstock Residents Association Chairman Robin Cobbey, "and along with CMI, Storey County bears some responsibility for this latest fiasco. CMI was never required to say how they would protect the highway or how they would move ore around it. The public has continually asked for a mining plan to show how this and other issues would be addressed but never received an answer.
In its hearings about the Special Use Permit governing the company's operations here the Storey County Commissioners ignored citizen requests for firmer regulation and closer oversight of the company's activities. Did it even know what was happening with the pit and the highway? The County's timidity and lack of resolution has been a governing factor in this ongoing farce from the day the company arrived, and this unhappy outcome is another example.
"We are calling on Storey County to exert its authority over CMI's abandonment of good mining practices and its lack of concern for public safety."
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