As work on Homestead Road between Gamebird and Manse roads steadily makes its way toward completion, some residents are turning their attention to the northernmost portion of that roadway where it meets with Highway 160.
At the corner of Highway 160 and Homestead Road, cement barriers and metal safety barricades with bright orange reflective strips have been in place since November 2017. The barriers are currently blocking off one of the southbound lanes on Homestead Road, where they were erected following a local utility main break.
The main break occurred on Nov. 12, 2017 and Great Basin Water Company reported that the issue was caused by aging infrastructure. The main was also reported as quickly repaired. However, there was a cone zone established due to the main break and four months later, little has changed. No construction work has taken place in the intervening weeks either, leading local residents to question what would be done with the area.
To learn what was happening at the intersection, requests for information were made with Great Basin Water Company and Nye County.
Great Basin Water Company President Wendy Barnett responded, explaining that the area will continue to be the subject of a cone zone for at least another two to three months. Furthermore, Barnett informed that the delay in returning the intersection back to normal has been caused by Nye County’s requirement that an engineering plan be drafted.
“We had hoped that we could, as we were initially led to believe, return the site to its original condition per the county approved plans for the recently improved road,” Barnett stated in an email on Feb. 28. “That was not the case however and we are currently working on a full engineering design plan for the project as requested by Nye County.”
Nye County Planning and Nye County Public Works departments were contacted for comment on the situation, but a response had not yet been received late Thursday morning.
Barnett estimated that the engineering process would hopefully be completed in the near future and then work to return the roadway to normal would follow shortly afterward.
“The geotechnical work will be done by the end of next week and we are expecting that the design plans will be submitted to Nye County for review within the next several weeks, certainly by the end of March,” Barnett detailed. “Once approved, the work will begin. The entire process will likely take two to three months.”
Contact reporter Robin Hebrock at rhebrock@pvtimes.com. On Twitter: @pvtimes