State Lawmaker Proposes Privately Funded Toll Road For Boulder City Bypass
Submitted by admin on Wed, 03/02/2011 - 2:19pm
By Sean Whaley / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – Nevada state Sen. Joe Hardy today introduced a bill to require the transportation department to develop a privately-financed toll road as a bypass around Boulder City.
Senate Bill 214 would require NDOT to establish a demonstration project for the toll road, providing for a public-private partnership to design, construct, finance and operate the 14-mile bypass around the community to the new bridge over the Colorado River.
With the opening of the new bridge late last year, traffic through Boulder City has become far worse, making a toll road bypass project all the more attractive, Hardy said.
Sen. Joe Hardy/Photo: Cathleen Allison/NevadaPhotoSource.com
“It’s just a total increase in traffic,” he said.
The issue of traffic through Boulder City with the new bridge was discussed by Gov. Brian Sandoval and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood in Washington during Sandoval’s recent visit.
Hardy, R-Boulder City, said toll roads were commonly used in Nevada back in the 19th century, so, “it is not a new concept.”
“So how do we get roads on the ground in Nevada is the same discussion we had 100 years ago,” Hardy said. “And we have to get private money, because we don’t have any.”
The project would create jobs in Southern Nevada and improve the traffic flow for what could ultimately become a segment of a new Interstate 11 between Las Vegas and Phoenix, he said.
There would still be an alternate free route through Boulder City, and it would not take an existing road and convert it into a toll road, Hardy said.
“So there are objections that people have that we can probably resolve,” he said.
Boulder City already owns the right-of-way, so the project could get under way once a planning process was completed, Hardy said.
“So we need the right people who have money to come in and put some pavement down on the ground and put our people to work,” he said. “We’re ready.”
Hardy’s bill would require the prevailing wage to be paid on the road project.
He did not know what the cost of the toll would be, but suggested it would be less than $10.
Efforts to authorize toll roads in Nevada have failed in past legislative sessions. Two such measures failed to win approval in 2009.
A government funded bypass around Boulder City is a project on the Nevada Department of Transportation’s list of state highway projects.
NDOT spokesman Scott Magruder said there is no funding yet for Phase 2 of the bypass, which is the roadway around Boulder City. The agency continues to seek the $300 million in funding and move forward with design, he said.
Traffic counts show that on average, about 15,000 vehicles travel through Boulder City now on U.S. Hwy. 93, Magruder said.Audio clips:
Sen. Joe Hardy says toll roads are not a new concept:
030211Hardy1 :11 100 years ago.”
Hardy says Nevada needs private money to build the bypass:
030211Hardy2 :22 Nevada from Arizona.”
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