September 9, 2002
Contact: Bob Mckenzie
Phone: (702) 385-6504
US 95 Projects To Improve Traffic Flow in Searchlight Area
Frehner Construction Company has been awarded a $21.8 million contract to complete the first phase of a widening project that will eventually make US 95 a four-lane highway from Railroad Pass to the border with California, NDOT Director Tom Stephens said today.
Phase I will be the middle section, from Searchlight to 17 miles north. Construction is scheduled to begin in October and is slated to take 300 working days, or slightly more than one year, with the contractor working six days per week.
“A new, divided highway will not only make this route safer, but there will be more opportunities to pass slower moving vehicles,” Stephens said. “Diversion of heavy truck traffic has really changed the character of this road.”
Director Stephens said since 9/11 and the re-routing of truck traffic to US 95 instead of Hoover Dam, traffic has increased some months as much as 40 percent. In a comparison of 12 months ending July 2001 and twelve months ending July 2002, there was an increase from an average of 6,255 vehicles per day to 7,910 or 26.4 percent.
Traffic flow on US 95 will also be improved by temporary vehicle turnouts and passing lanes being completed this week. Three northbound and three southbound vehicle turnouts are now in place to allow slow moving motorists to pull over. South of Searchlight, four new passing lanes have been installed, each two miles long, and an existing passing lane northbound into Searchlight has been extended.
Construction of the new roadway includes an upgrade of the existing two-lane road with a new overlay. When completed, both northbound and southbound directions will have a 36-foot roadway consisting of two 12-foot travel lanes with a four-foot inside shoulder and eight-foot outside shoulder separated from the opposite flow of traffic by a 67-foot graded median where right-of-way allows that much separation.
Phase II of the widening project will create four lanes from 17 miles north of Searchlight to Railroad Pass. That phase is being designed at this time, with an anticipated advertising date of fall of next year. Phase III will provide four lanes from Searchlight to the Laughlin cutoff. Anticipated advertising for bidders is fall 2004.
