Nighttime Construction Transforms SR 169

By MARC JENSEN

The Progress

State Route 169 in Moapa Valley has seen heavy equipment construction activity along the stretch of road between Canal Avenue and Interstate 15. This activity is part of the Nevada Department of Transportation’s SR 169 Shoulder Widening and Truck Climbing Lane Project.

The project entails significant earthwork cutting into hills and filling hollows to allow for widening the roadway and shoulders for improved safety, traffic flow and bicycle lanes.

Motorists have been frustrated for years by the slow-moving heavy trucks that struggle up the steep hill from the mortuary to “Dead Man’s Curve.” They either have had to settle in patiently at a slow speed behind the trucks or attempt to pass them on the hill while risking a head-on collision with fast moving oncoming traffic in the opposing downhill lane. This frustration will be overcome with a new slow vehicle lane in the uphill direction, allowing faster vehicles to pass in a separate lane.

The improvements will also include deceleration lanes for vehicles turning onto Waterline Road. At this intersection, trucks turning westbound onto Waterline Road have sometimes posed a hazard to traffic while making the turn.

Those who ride their bicycles along this section of road will also appreciate new bike lanes that will provide a buffer from the high-speed vehicle traffic.

This road improvements project was designed last year by the CA Group under the direction of NDOT staff for a cost of close to $1.2 million, including NDOT internal costs.

After bids from three contractors, the construction work was awarded to Las Vegas Paving on December 19, 2022, for the price of $13,435,000.

Work on the project started in March with workers erecting special fencing along the right-of-way on both sides of the road to help keep desert tortoise from wandering into the construction zone and onto the roadway. While the tortoise fencing was being installed, Las Vegas Paving brought in scrapers, dozers, rock trucks, graders and other heavy earthmoving equipment to their staging area near Waterline Road.

As the tortoise fencing was completed on the southern end of the project, Las Vegas Paving commenced earthwork adjoining the roadway for the wider shoulders and new travel lanes.

Some area residents have commented on the time and expense involved in constructing the high-quality, permanent tortoise fencing. The actual cost of the tortoise fencing alone is slightly more than $1 million.

NDOT Project Manager Nanette Maxwell explained that the fencing is a requirement of the Nevada Department of Environmental Protection to satisfy regulations to protect the tortoise, a federally-listed species native to our area. The fencing will remain in place after the project is finished to continue preventing the tortoise from coming onto the highway. Openings in the fencing are provided at a few strategic locations to maintain access to trails and dirt roads for bicycles and off road vehicles.

Originally, officials planned for work on this project to be conducted during daylight hours, from 6 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Thursday. Under that plan, there would have been periods when only one travel lane would be available. Flaggers and pilot cars would be used to control one-way traffic and impose delays of up to 30 minutes on commuters who have no better alternative for travel to and from work.

But after comments from residents at a public meeting held last November, NDOT and Las Vegas Paving agreed to perform much of the earthwork on each side of the road at night to mitigate traffic restrictions and delays.

Motorists may have had a hard time seeing the earth moving activity at night over the past several weeks, but in the light of day, the changing topography on each side of the highway becomes apparent.

Las Vegas Paving (LVP) project manager, Thaaron Ross, explained that some upcoming work requires digging across the existing roadway to remove corrugated metal storm drain pipes and replace them with concrete pipes. This work was scheduled to begin on Monday and is planned to be performed during daytime hours.

Ross said LVP will limit the travel constriction to only those areas where piping is being replaced, thus involving only short stretches of roadway and shorter delays. Moreover, the crews will adjust work hours for the piping replacement to be between 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. with the goal of further reducing delays during peak commuter times.

Nighttime earthwork on the shoulders of the highway will continue for another three months or so, according to Ross. The excavation of the rocky bluff at Dead Man’s Curve to widen and straighten the road alignment is the most difficult section of this earthwork, he said.

Once the shoulder earthwork is complete, construction equipment will have to get into the existing pavement during daytime hours. That brings the potential for more travel delays due to lane closures as flaggers and pilot cars move traffic around active construction areas.

Motorists are encouraged to be patient with the inconvenience as the improvements will be worth the wait.

The project is currently scheduled to be complete by January 2024.