‘When children are present’ means a crowd
In recent years, signs marking school zones and the hours during which they're in effect have been mostly replaced by flashing signs. But some of the older signs still exist, and they tend to cause some confusion.
Fred says: We are confused about signs that say, for instance, "School zone, speed limit 15 mph, when children are present." There are no times listed. Does that mean any time of day or night, any day of the week? What constitutes children being present?
Good question. Do you need to hit on the brakes if children are playing soccer in a fenced-in schoolyard on a Saturday morning?
The answer is no, the school zones are not enforced on weekends, said Metropolitan Police Department spokeswoman Barbara Morgan. During the week, flashing signs are turned on or off depending on when school starts or ends. When it comes to the signs like the ones Fred referenced, the presence of children would constitute a crowd of youngsters seen on the school grounds during recess or walking to and from school in the morning or afternoons.
If you happen to see a couple of kids present say, at 5 p.m., when school is obviously out, the zones are not being enforced.
"Common sense prevails," Morgan said.
Mike doesn't like his view: We live in Panorama Towers on Dean Martin Drive. On our west and south sides we were surrounded by a very large bus facility, stretching from Harmon to Tomkins. Over the weekend, the entire site was vacated. Do you know anything about this change and, of greater significance, the potential future of this neighboring property?
Mike, that was a Regional Transportation Commission facility. But, lucky for you and probably a lot of other concerned residents in Panorama Towers, the RTC outgrew that property. It recently opened its new $75 million facility on Sunset Road. That maintenance center is expected to service 300 transit vehicles each day.
The RTC was leasing the land adjacent to your condominiums, and that lease will run out in December. But the big question that now looms is who your new neighbors will be.
Don is curious about who designs the sound walls lining our highways: Why do sound walls have different patterns, some southwest, some just simple patterns. Who decides what the design is?
When the state Transportation Department builds new walls, it presents three patterns to stakeholders and holds public meetings to hear residents' input. The patterns are selected from the state's Landscape and Aesthetics Plan. They are typically uniform through each section of a corridor.
If you have a question, tip or tirade, call the Road Warrior at 387-2904, or e-mail her at roadwarrior@reviewjournal.com or apacker@reviewjournal.com. Please include your phone number.
Just a reminder to stay away from McCarran International Airport if at all possible. The reason I recommend this is that there will be major road projects under way around the airport connector tunnel starting on Monday. It’s difficult to predict what type of lane closures you might encounter, as work changes by the day.
The construction, which is in preparation for the opening of Terminal 3, will affect travel lanes between Kitty Hawk Way and the tunnel. The airport is adding new lanes to access the new terminal and installing a safety barrier that will prevent exiting and entering traffic from weaving within shared lanes. The $22.2 million project also includes new bridges to ease congestion between Terminals 1 and 2 at McCarran. The project is expected to be done in 2011.
Oakey Boulevard will be closed to westbound travel between Western Avenue and Rancho Drive, between 5 a.m. and 3 p.m. daily. The closure will remain in effect until further notice as crews work to install large concrete flood control boxes at Oakey. Oakey will reopen to one westbound travel lane to accommodate afternoon commute traffic each day. Oakey will be open to westbound travel on the weekends.
During the closure, westbound traffic will be detoured at Western. The detour route, to the north, is Wall Street to Martin Luther King Boulevard to Charleston Boulevard. The alternate route, to the south, is from Western to Scotland Lane to Highland Drive to Sahara Avenue to Rancho. Eastbound Oakey will remain open with one travel lane at all times. As traffic disruptions and congestion can be expected, Sahara and Charleston are suggested for through east-west travel.
Lane restrictions also will be in effect downtown, where crews are installing and upgrading the power infrastructure on Main and First streets. The work is taking place on Main between Boulder and Clark avenues and on First between Coolidge Street and Gass Avenue. Crews are working on Coolidge and Gass between Main and First, and west of Main near Clark all the way to the Las Vegas Symphony Park development site.
During construction, which will occur day and night, Main will narrow to one lane in each direction, which means parking on the street in work zones will be temporarily unavailable.
Casino Center Boulevard will be closed between Charleston Boulevard and Bridger Avenue through December. Casino Center also will be closed between Charleston and California Street on Thursday while paving work is done.
