LAS VEGAS, NV (KXNT) - The Nevada Department of Transportation has awarded a $17.1 million construction contract to Road and Highway Builders LLC to improve a 32-mile stretch of U.S. Highway 95 in Nye County.
The 6-month project calls for placing new asphalt pavement and turn lanes, plus creating a new 2-mile-long northbound passing lane, widening freeway shoulders, and flattening side slopes for safer vehicle turnouts.
“This state-funding project will greatly enhance this critical stretch of rural freeway, creating a smoother, more efficient and safer traveling experience,” said NDOT spokesman Tony Illia.
Other upgrades entail drainage and lighting improvements, plus installing Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) wiring and conduit, hydro-seeding 4.4 acres and transplanting 366 trees. The project additionally calls for moving enough dirt to fill 10 Olympic-sized swimming pools and placing enough blacktop to pave 13,000 average-sized driveways. The undertaking will add 95 miles of rumble strips, place 400 cubic yards of riprap and install tortoise fencing and a cattle guard.
The enhancements run along U.S. Highway 95 between Mile Markers 72 and 104, or roughly from 12 miles north of Beatty to 4 miles south of the Nye/Esmeralda County line. This stretch of freeway averages roughly 8,400 vehicles daily, with 18 percent of traffic coming from heavy truck travel.
Construction is expected to start in September, with work occurring 6 a.m. until 3:30 p.m. daily, with pilot cars escorting traffic through the work zone, Drivers should expect delays during work hours.