Highway 160 widening project in town won’t finish until spring

With the rash of unseasonably high temperatures over the last couple of weeks, the widening work on Highway 160 in Pahrump made significant progress, but despite that, the project will not finish until next year.

The $3.5 million, 1.75-mile-long widening of Highway 160 between Rainbow Avenue and Calvada Boulevard was slated to finish in this month but was then pushed back into December, and now has been extended into next year.

“We will continue to work for two to three weeks and then come back next spring to finish the three-quarter-inch open grade paving,” said Tony Illia, NDOT spokesperson. “It will most likely be around April 2017.”

The colder winter temperatures don’t present the optimum conditions to complete the paving, which is the reason for the delay.

Besides that, there’s still striping and shoulder work that needs to be done, among other miscellaneous things, according to NDOT.

Despite the delay, the area is ready to be open to travel on a temporary basis, until the work can be finalized.

“We will place temporary striping and leave the 1.75-mile stretch of State Route 160 open with no traffic controls between Rainbow Avenue and Calvada Boulevard,” Illia said. “However, the 1.75-mile stretch between Rainbow Avenue and Calvada Boulevard will still be two lanes in each direction.”

The project will expand the highway from two to four travel lanes, adding a center turn lane and flattening side slope shoulders for safer vehicle turnouts.

The project required 23,000 tons of asphalt or enough blacktop to pave 3,600 driveways, according to NDOT.

Contact reporter Mick Akers at makers@pvtimes.com. Follow @mickakers on Twitter.