Nevada Breaks Ground On First Design-Build Road

Nevada broke ground April 24 on its first design-build road project, the $234-million, Interstate-15 North widening in Las Vegas. The state is one of the last to use design-build and the innovation comes as Nevada ponders how to fund future road work..

By Tony Illia

Design-build is expected to shave two years off the I-15 widening. The project calls for expanding a 5.5-mile stretch of interstate from the U.S. 95/I-15 “Spaghetti Bowl” interchange north to Craig Road. North Corridor Constructors LLC – a joint-venture between Las Vegas Paving Corp., and CH2M-Hill Inc. – is the design-build general contractor. The segment of roadway is sorely outdated, with portions having been built in the late 1960’s. Today, it sees over 170,000 travelers a day.

The improvements will add lanes, reconfigure a major interchange, reconstruct ramps and add an intelligent transportation system for signs and metering. The project, which was awarded in June, is expected to finish by fall 2010.

 “We’re speeding up the process,” says Nevada Dept. of Transportation Director, Susan Martinovich. “Southern Nevadans will get traffic relief sooner with the design/build system that allows actual construction to start while the designing is still taking place.”

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Nevada’s boom growth has created a dramatic gap between infrastructure and incoming residents. From 1990 to 2006, Nevada’s population more than doubled, from 1.2 million to 2.5 million people – an increase of 108% and the fastest population growth rate in the nation. And from 1990 to 2005, vehicle miles of travel in Nevada increased by 103%, from approximately 10 billion annual vehicle miles of travel to approximately 22 billion, which is also the fastest growth rate in the nation, reports The Road Information Program. Roughly 44% of Nevada’s roads are consequently rated as “congested,” the TRIP adds.

The situation is especially critical for the Las Vegas Valley, which now accounts for 72% of the Nevada’s total population. Roughly 7,940 residents a month moved into the Las Vegas Valley in 2007. The Southern Nevada Regional Transportation Commission estimates that every 1,000 new residents add 750 more vehicles to traffic.

The I-15 North design-build widening is one the last major projects to receive state funding approval in 2006. NDOT faces a $6-billion highway funding shortfall, and needs an extra $80-million to continue its roads and highways construction program for fiscal years 2009-10. Gov. Jim Gibbons (R) has pledged to not raise new taxes amid a looming budget shortfall. His gubernatorial predecessor, Kenny Guinn (R), by comparison, approved a $1 billion bond program that fast-tracked work on critical highway infrastructure.

Gibbons has created a task force to study highway financing alternatives. Public-private partnerships and toll roads are being discussed, yet both would require amending the state constitution. A decision isn’t likely until 2009.

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