Reconstruction of downtown corridor moving forward

The reconstruction of Carson Street in the downtown corridor will be proceeding as planned this year, said Carson City Transportation Manager Patrick Pittenger.

Construction is expected to begin in March and last until November, Pittenger said, but the project is not going to interfere with Nevada Day Parade festivities.

By then, he said, all of the messy work will be finished and what’s left will be mostly clean-up items.

“We will be open for Nevada Day,” Pittenger said. “When we’re done, Carson Street will be one lane in each direction.”

But it will still be car-friendly, and more bicycle and pedestrian friendly, too.

Pittenger referred to the city’s approved plan to add limited parking spaces along the downtown Carson Street corridor that will be easier to get in and out of than the original plans, which called for a larger number of parallel spaces that would have created more traffic concerns.

The master plan for the downtown corridor will also widen sidewalks to as much as 20 feet and reduce the distance needed for pedestrians to cross the street from 65 feet down to 40 feet.

Pittenger said pedestrian safety has been a chief concern in the development of the city’s strategic transportation plan. He cites a number of pedestrian-automobile accidents that have occurred along Carson Street in recent years, and one goal of the downtown corridor improvement plan is to reduce the safety risk to pedestrians.

“We do have safety concerns downtown with sidewalks,” said Pittenger, who added that the Spear Street crosswalk (at Carson Street) will be reinstated under the reconstruction plan. That crosswalk had been removed following a pedestrian-automobile accident.

Citing concerns from the community that the downtown corridor plan is about aesthetics, Pittenger states that the Carson Street reconstruction is not a beautification project.

“This is not a facelift,” he said. “It’s the needed reconstruction of an old road, and replacement of the pipes under the road.”

Pittenger points specifically to utility pipes underneath the street that are more than 70 years old and in need of being replaced. He said the city felt it to be more prudent — and cost effective — to replace the pipes and the road in one project.

Construction for downtown corridor improvement will take place between William to Fifth streets. Alternative routes to avoid construction include Roop, Stewart and Division streets. However, Carson Street will still remain open to traffic in spite of the construction, Pittenger stressed, and this is good news for the businesses along the downtown corridor.

“Working with businesses is at the top of the list” of priorities concerning the reconstruction project, Pittenger said.

There will only be one short period of time in which complete street closure will occur, Pittenger said. During the paving phase, all of Carson Street between William and Fifth streets will be closed in both directions for about 10 days.

Pittenger said this plan is preferred to keeping a constant flow of traffic during paving; the latter of which would take weeks to complete instead of days.

“It’s worth it to get it done faster and cheaper,” Pittenger said.

Reconstruction of Carson Street’s downtown corridor will cost $8 million, funded in part by the one-eighth sales tax increase passed by the Board of Supervisors in late 2014, and in part by utility funds.

“This has been very methodical,” Pittenger said. “It’s no surprise. The big picture is 10 years in the making, at least.”

The Municipality of Carson City took over the cost of maintaining Carson Street, previously known as U.S. Highway 395, from the Nevada Department of Transportation when the I-580 freeway bypass was completed to Fairview Drive. This has meant more roads for the city to maintain with not a lot of money, Pittenger said.

As part of the long-term strategic transportation plan, improvements have been made in recent years to the north-south connectors paralleling the Carson Street corridor — namely Roop and Stewart streets on the east side, and Division Street on the west side — to prepare for the downtown corridor's reconstruction, Pittenger said.

While he understands concerns about Carson Street narrowing through the downtown corridor, Pittenger notes that much of the traffic that Carson Street has historically attracted is already being absorbed by the freeway bypass, as well as Roop, Stewart and Division streets.

“Once there were 40,000 vehicles a day on Carson Street,” Pittenger noted. “This is now down to 17,000 vehicles per day.”

He said he expects the traffic load to lighten even more once the final phase of the freeway bypass is completed in 2017. South Carson Street, he said, can be expected to lose 20,000 cars a day when the last phase of the freeway bypass — paralleling South Edmunds between Fairview Drive and the junction at U.S. highways 395 and 50 west — is opened.

At some point afterward, Pittenger said the city will begin the next phases of reconstructing Carson Street; from Arrowhead-Medical Parkway to William Street on the north end, and between Fifth Street and Highway 50 on the south side of town.

“This is not the beginning or the end of corridor improvements,” Pittenger said.

When it is all said and done, he added, the community will see key infrastructures being fixed and safety improved.

"The nature of [the project] is more of what you should be doing,” Pittenger said. “It slows traffic and is safer for pedestrians and bicycles.”

For more information about the downtown corridor reconstruction, Pittenger encourages attendance at the bi-weekly city transportation division meetings, held every other Wednesday in the Sierra Room at the Carson Community Center.

Interested persons can also get more information by visiting the public works department’s web page at www.carson.org, via www.carsonproud.com, or by calling 887-2355.