For the past three and a half months, area motorists have had to navigate their way through or around the construction zone on Basin Avenue and despite an original estimate that the project would come to a close this month, county officials are now unsure as to when it will finally reach completion.
The 1.2-mile improvement project, targeting Basin Avenue from just west of Highway 160 to Blagg Road, kicked off in February and was originally scheduled to finish in mid-May. However, the process of bidding and awarding the contracts for the paving is causing delays.
Nye County Public Works crews have been handling all of the excavation and prep work for the road and its two major intersections in-house but the new pavement and concrete work is to be undertaken by outside contractors.
Last month, Nye County Public Works Director Tom Bolling reported that his department had gone out to bid for the first phase of the paving, focused on the intersection of Blagg and Basin, but not a single bid was submitted.
This left the department with two options: going out to bid again or advertising that no bids were received and then letting out the contract directly. The Nye County Commission opted to direct Nye County Public Works Director Tom Bolling to take the second route.
“Public Works has selected the contractor for the Basin and Blagg intersection, also known as the Basin-Dahlia to Blagg – Phase 1 project,” Bolling told the Pahrump Valley Times when reached for an update last week. “We are in the process of executing the contract with the selected bidder, Las Vegas Paving Corp. We are hoping to have this process complete soon so we may pave the intersection some time in the first or second week of June.”
This is one key step forward but it’s not the only stumbling block the project is seeing. When asked whether the county has a new estimate on when the project will officially wrap up, Bolling replied, “At this time, no, because we are trying to get paving bid packages through finance right now, and their department is just really busy.”
Indeed, as the end of fiscal year 2022-2023 looms, the Nye County Finance Department is focused on closing out the current fiscal year and readying for the next, a task that requires a large amount of staff time.
That doesn’t mean that the Basin Avenue project is entirely stagnant, though. The county recently awarded a contract for the concrete work, labeled as phase four of the project, with Pahrump-based Performance Concrete LLC chosen. The contract totals $134,155 which is nearly $70,000 below the county-estimated price tag.
As detailed in the contract, this phase includes concrete “L” type curb, sidewalk, curb ramps, driveways, six-inch integrated curb, an eight-foot valley gutter and type 2 curb.
Contact reporter Robin Hebrock at rhebrock@pvtimes.com