What started in February as a projected four-month project is still underway and area motorists will see no relief from the construction on Basin Avenue in the coming weeks. Despite two paving contracts being awarded earlier this month, the county is anticipating that the Basin Avenue rebuild will not wrap up until sometime in September.
“Currently, public works is working on the subgrade and Type II for phase 4 Dahlia intersection concrete. While we have that area excavated, we plan on doing the subgrade rebuild for phase 3 Dahlia intersection,” Nye County Public Works Director Tom Bolling told the Pahrump Valley Times on July 11. “We still have roughly 1,200 linear feet of phase 2 Basin mainline to excavate and backfill and we will finish that after the Dahlia intersection is complete.”
While the excavation is in process, the Dahlia Street intersection is closed to traffic.
“We are planning all this work to be competed by the end of August,” Bolling continued. “Then we will import Type II and Finish grade for paving. Since Las Vegas Paving was awarded the contracts for both phase 2 and phase 3 paving, we will schedule them to pave both phases at the same time, more than likely around the middle of September.”
What is by far the largest community event in the valley each year, Fall Festival, is scheduled for the end of September and with thousands of attendees expected, Bolling said the goal is to see the Basin Avenue project finished before the festival takes place.
“We, of course, will be complete by the time the Fall Festival gets here,” Bolling stated, adding, “We are going to push for completion earlier than what I’ve discussed with you, but there are a lot of facets that go into finishing the road.”
The 1.2-mile Basin Avenue project kicked off in January with Nye County crews handling all of the preparatory work needed prior to the install of all new asphalt, such as excavation and backfill of the roadway and included intersections at Blagg Road and Dahlia Street. The original estimate was a completion by the close of May but delays cropped up when the county received no bids on the first paving contract. The county was eventually able to secure Las Vegas Paving Corp. for the Basin and Blagg intersection paving but the delay resulted in the overall completion date being pushed back.
Now, the Basin and Blagg intersection is finally paved and the county is all set to go with its paving contracts for the main stretch of Basin from Blagg to Highway 160 as well as the Dahlia intersection, both of which also went to Las Vegas Paving. The Basin Phase 2 Mainline contract comes with a $607,000 price tag while the Basin Phase 3 Dahlia Intersection will run the county $289,000. As Bolling noted, paving is expected to begin in September.
Contact reporter Robin Hebrock at rhebrock@pvtimes.com