Gamebird flood channel nears completion

Patriot Contractors has almost completed building a flood channel on Gamebird Road. The company will soon start building another channel a block south on Yucca Springs Road, Nye County Public Works Director Dave Fanning told county commissioners Tuesday.

Patriot Contractors submitted the low bid of $93,000 for the work from Highway 160 to Malibou Avenue.

Under a memorandum of understanding Nye County commissioners agreed to pay for the work and be reimbursed by William Lyon Homes. The county agreement, approved Jan. 7, said new flood zone designations by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) would impact Mountain Falls subdivision. Gamebird Road was the site of major flooding during monsoon rains in late July.

Commissioner Dan Schinhofen wants to get estimates on the cost of continuing the drainage improvements all the way to Homestead Road. At the January meeting, Schinhofen told the board it’s the first part of a flood control project the county approved in 2008. A 2007 Bureau Veritas study outlined a network of flood control measures in Pahrump, including dams and catchment basins for floodwaters off the Spring Mountains, culverts under Highway 160 and a series of channels for the flow.

The contract calls for excavating 23,700 cubic yards of material for the Gamebird Channel and 38,300 cubic yards for the Yucca Springs Channel. Material from the Gamebird Channel will be stockpiled next to the fairgrounds site, material from the Yucca Springs Channel will be deposited at Mountain Falls. The Gamebird channel is 60 feet wide at the top and 30 feet wide at the bottom.

Nye County Manager Pam Webster said future storm flows into Mountain Falls could be addressed in a development agreement when it came time to develop that property just north of the subdivision. Fanning told Commissioner Butch Borasky he didn’t have the budget to maintain it, but it would be a good interim measure for the start of a flood channel system.

District Attorney Brian Kunzi told commissioners back in January it could impact agricultural land in that area, other areas will show improvement from flooding. He wasn’t concerned from a liability standpoint.

Property owner John O’Brien, in a Community Viewpoint letter, said his property has been flooded over a dozen times in 20 years. He charged Mountain Falls had diverted floodwaters onto Gamebird Road toward Homestead Road without no outlet. O’Brien added Nye County altered the natural course of stormwater when there were culverts under Homestead Road, raising the road and creating a dike.

Fanning told the Pahrump Valley Times Monday the channels will retain some water during a storm and won’t send the water down all at one time, depending on where it flows off the alluvial fan. The water will flow down its natural path in that area but the channels will help keep water from going through the back of lots on Gamebird Road, he said.

The $93,000 won’t pay for bridge sections and rip rap to prevent erosion, Fanning said.

Terry Connelly, vice-president of operations for William Lyon Homes, downplayed the role of the FEMA flood maps in doing the project. He explained it as more like his company was undertaking a street project in a capital improvement plan.

“I don’t think any of those flood maps are finalized yet. What we’re doing is helping out the county with some of their long term drainage mitigation measures they have throughout the valley in their master plan,” Connelly said.

One of the workers for Patriot Contractors was struck by a motorist while working on Gamebird Road, Fanning said, but he still showed up for work the next day. Ironically, this week the Nevada Department of Transportation declared National Work Zone Awareness Week. NDOT said two contractors lost their lives in the past year after being struck by motorists on Interstate 80, while an NDOT employee is recovering after being severely injured on a roadway near Fallon.