Officials plan to start repairs on Homestead Road in Pahrump between Gamebird and Manse Roads shortly, the top priority on the list of planned projects, officials said.
At the Pahrump Regional Planning Commission on Tuesday, officials discussed the Nye County Public Works Evaluation Matrix titled “Project Priority Ranking List.”
Among the top priorities on the list of the roads in need of repairs were Homestead Road, West Charleston Park Avenue and Basin Avenue in Pahrump, West Calvada Boulevard, Blagg Road and Pahrump Valley Boulevard.
“The top section is road projects and the bottom section is intersection improvements. We look at traffic counts and road condition plus other sources of funding as the main criteria for setting priorities,” Nye County Planning Department Director Darrell Lacy said.
Among listed intersections slated for improvement were Blagg Road, Nevada Highway 372 and Pahrump Valley Boulevard, where the construction of a roundabout is currently going on, Barney Street and Bell Vista Road, Honeysuckle Street and Pahrump Valley Boulevard, where officials plan to do superpave.
Additionally, the Nevada Department of Transportation plans on widening at the intersection of Bell Vista Avenue and Highway 160 and Mesquite Avenue and Highway 160.
Typically, when a road is paved the intersections are also paved, Lacy said. The intersection improvements are being made for changes in design such as left-turn lanes, acceleration lanes and recently, roundabouts.
While the roundabouts got to the top of the list based on NDOT safety fund availability, Nye County only paid a portion of the projects.
“We did not have the funding to improve both intersections with stop lights. We contributed $900,000 for two roundabouts – versus over $2 million each for stoplights,” Lacy said.
“I know roundabouts are not popular with some people but it was roundabouts or nothing,” Lacy said. “And NDOT provided many safety studies showing a reduction in fatalities and serious accidents. They should be complete in the next month or so, hopefully, people will learn to use them safely.”
Contact reporter Daria Sokolova at dsokolova@pvtimes.com. On Twitter: @dariasokolova77