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-News Articles/Editorials/Letters to the Editor-
7/30/2005
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A cover and plaza over the train trench, now under construction in downtown Reno, may be possible with $15 million earmarked in the new federal transportation bill passed Friday by Congress. The money would be part of $259 million targeted for Nevada transportation projects — a 30 percent increase over the previous five-year program that expired in September 2003. Lawmakers packed billions in special projects into the transportation bill that took nearly two years to complete and comes close to the $284 billion cap set by President Bush. Lawmakers were eager to deliver the heaping platter of road-construction dollars, mass-transit support and safety assistance. The total package is worth $286.5 billion over six years. Don Young, R-Alaska, chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, declared when the House passed the bill 412 to 8 Friday: “This day is a truly momentous day for users of our nation’s transportation infrastructure.” The Senate later passed the bill 91 to 4. Other Northern Nevada projects included in the legislation are: * Virginia Street bus rapid transit plan ($12 million). * Pyramid Highway corridor improvements ($12 million). * Railroad reconstruction in Ely and White Pine counties ($2 million). * Upgrading U.S. 50 between Fernley and Fallon ($4 million). * New interchange at Interstate 80 in Fernley ($7.6 million). Several big money projects were included in Southern Nevada, including $50 million for the Hoover Dam Bypass Bridge and $45 million for a magnetic levitation train to connect Las Vegas to Los Angeles. “I believe the Maglev train will be the future of travel between places like southern Nevada and southern California,” said Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev. “Airports are overburdened with the amount of short-haul flights and we must start reinvesting in train traffic.” Mayor Bob Cashell said Friday evening that he is awaiting formal notice of the congressional action. “We are very excited,” he said. “We’ve been working on it a long time.” A trench cover would not set back the overall project’s timeframe, Cashell said. Design work on the trench project already completed was undertaken “to carry a lid if we wanted to put a lid on it,” the mayor said. More specifics will be finalized after the city receives final notice of the congressional action, he said. While capping the downtown Reno train trench was not an original component of the design-build contract with Granite Construction, the city could consider changing the contract, Councilman Dave Aiazzi said. Having Granite create the plaza as a part of the overall project could make it faster and cheaper to accomplish, he said. “That would be our first preference now because they’re on site, and we could get a better bid I would assume,” Aiazzi said. Councilman Dan Gustin, who represents much of downtown including the trench project, said he didn’t know which blocks would be covered or what exactly would be done but having a plaza would benefit downtown. “That would be the idea, to make it as pedestrian and visitor friendly as possible, so it would not only be to cover the railroad tracks but would be a part of the beautification of downtown,” Gustin said. |
