By VERNON ROBISON
Moapa Valley Progress
The Moapa Valley Town Advisory Board heard a report on upcoming state highway projects being proposed for the Moapa Valley community by the Nevada Department of Transportation (NDOT) during a meeting held on Wednesday, May 15 in Overton.
Appearing before the board to deliver the report was NDOT Assistant Engineer, Mario Gomez.
Gomez stated that NDOT has three projects planned for surface treatments on State Route 169 through the Logandale and Overton communities. These projects are planned to take place over the next couple of years in 2020 and 2021.
The first project is a slurry seal on the surface of a nine mile stretch of the highway roughly from the Moapa Valley Mortuary in Logandale to the Lost City Museum south of Overton. The cost of this project is estimated at around $1 million, Gomez said.
The next project is repair work to drainage infrastructure at the Overton wash. This would include a junction box and replacement of an existing pipe at that location with reinforced concrete pipe, Gomez said. The cost of this repair project is estimated at about $50,000, he said.
“We had a discussion that we may need to put more money into that spot,” Gomez added. “It will obviously take a much bigger project to solve the drainage issue at that wash. So we will revisit that and try to figure out how to deal with flood water drainage there and also all the mud that has piled up there.”
The third project would be what Gomez called a “chip seal project” improving the highway south from Lost City Museum down to the Lake Mead National Recreation Area entrance. The projected cost for this piece is $180,000, Gomez said.
Moapa Valley Town Advisory Board (MVTAB) member Gene Houston observed that a surface slurry seal would not be enough to smooth out the bumps from cracks in pavement that exist on the highway as it runs through Logandale.
In addition, just south of Lyman Street, the manholes installed several years ago when the sewer line was constructed have since sunk and left some significant dips in the roadway that need to be addressed, Houston said.
“Slurry is not going to solve that either,” Houston said.
Houston also raised the question of establishing OHV/golf cart accessibility in the downtown Overton area. Gomez said that this may require an update to the NDOT masterplan for that area. He said that he would look into that subject further.
During public comment period, Logandale resident Gary Pearson asked that NDOT consider a truck lane going up the hill out of Logandale from the Mortuary.
Another resident pointed out that crosswalks are needed at certain points on the Boulevard. In some of those spots, yellow flashing lights would be advisable as well, he said.
Logandale resident Don Whipple recalled a meeting he had in 2017, with NDOT designer Ken Steele, discussing safer conditions for bicycle riders along the highway.
In that conversation Whipple said that they had talked about bike routes for kids to get to area schools, turn lanes at key intersections along the highway, four foot wide shoulders to better accommodate bicyclists, and the passing lane which had earlier been spoken of by Pearson.
“He (Steele) told us that $15 million would be allocated for State Route 169 from the Mortuary all the way to the lake to add a lot of the things that we are talking about here,” Whipple said. “But apparently Ken Steele has since retired and those plans have been either scrapped or lost.”
“Our vision would be Ken Steele’s idea back in 2017,” Whipple added, “to make this a safe place for bikers, pedestrians and auto traffic alike.”
Local Metro sergeant Bret Empey observed that Moapa Valley is the only OHV friendly community in Clark County. As such the community had long been working to get NDOT on board in designating a portion of State Highway 169 as OHV friendly.
“As it stands now, we have big recreation areas to the east and west of the community,” Empey said. “But we can’t connect to the two without paralleling the state highway.”
Empey said that a proposal from the community had already been submitted to NDOT which had gone nowhere. It included designating the highway from Wells Road to Gubler Avenue in Logandale; and from Bryner Ave to Museum Road in Overton; as OHV friendly.
In addition, Empey said that a street light installed at Highway 169 and Whipple Ave in Logandale would help in the safety of that intersection. “There is no lighting there at night and the intersection is not maintained as well as it should be,” Empey said. “Even if it was a yellow flashing crosswalk light, it would be helpful.”
Gomez said he would take these comments back to his NDOT colleagues and look into fulfilling them. He also suggested that NDOT host a workshop in the community to continue the conversation. This idea was welcomed by the MVTAB members.
