Summerlin Parkway exit ahead

This week, readers want to know why the Summerlin Parkway project isn't yet done, and if it's legal to cross a broken yellow line to pass and then a solid yellow line when returning to the right lane. Plus, a special Hit 'n' Run is offered by the R-J's first Road Warrior.

A reader asks: Why is the Buffalo Drive exit on the Summerlin Parkway still closed when city officials said the work would be done on June 1?

After weeks of promises that work on the $2 million Summerlin Parkway improvements would be finished on June 1, the Las Vegas public works department said construction would most likely continue through Sunday.

While most of the work associated with the project was complete, workers ran into problems with the westbound Buffalo Drive exit. Jerry Walker, deputy director of field operations for Las Vegas, said crews with Southern Nevada Paving ran into problems when they tried to raise the elevation of the westbound Buffalo offramp to meet the height of the parkway's newly added third lane.

Walker told me workers were surprised to find cemented gravel under the Buffalo offramp instead of dirt fill, which would have been easier to add to and raise the elevation of the road.

Walker expects the extra work will add, at most, $100,000 to the overall cost of the project.

Even with the extra week of work, Walker called the project a success because it added 12 to 14 years to the viability of Summerlin Parkway at a low cost and in a short period of time.

He explained that the deterioration of the freeway had increased the cost of maintenance over the past eight months.

"We were worried about the rainy season," in August and how the worsening road could affect the safety of the drivers using the freeway, Walker said.

Motorists should use the Durango Drive offramp until the work is finished.

Bob Disman asks: While driving through Alamo recently I was stopped and issued a citation by a member of law enforcement for passing over a solid yellow line. I explained to him that it was a broken yellow line when I began my pass and I did not see the solid line until I completed my pass. Is it illegal to pass on a broken yellow line and return on a solid yellow line?

Trooper Kevin Honea, spokesman for the Nevada Highway Patrol, told me drivers should try to pass completely within the broken-yellow-line zone.

But in my opinion, Nevada Revised Statutes doesn't directly address the issue.

Statute 484.299 states a driver may only move into the oncoming traffic lane for passing, when the "left side is clearly visible and is free of oncoming traffic for a sufficient distance ahead to permit such overtaking and passing to be completely made without interfering with the safe operation of any vehicle approaching from the opposite direction or any vehicle overtaken."

So what is a sufficient distance? I certainly don't know and it never says. It could probably change depending on the speed limit in an area. Fifty feet might be sufficient distance if everyone was driving 2 mph. But I wouldn't think it would be sufficient distance if the speed limit were 65 mph.

State statute 484.301 talks about zones where passing on the left side is acceptable. Section two states: "A driver shall not drive on the left side of the highway within such zone or drive across or on the left side of any pavement striping designed to mark such zone throughout its length."

One interpretation of that statute is that the entire passing maneuver must be made within the designated passing zone.

Another interpretation is that a motorist cannot drive on the left side of the zone "throughout its length," which, in essence, is prohibiting drivers from using the zone as another lane of the highway. In other words, the statute seems to indicate that drivers who want to pass another vehicle should get into the left lane, pass the vehicle and get back into the right lane without lingering.

Unfortunately Bob, I don't think either statute offers a clear answer to whether it is allowable to pass over the broken yellow line and return over a solid yellow line. It seems like something the Legislature should clarify.

As far as your citation, Bob, you might have to rely on the benevolence of a judge.

Hit 'n' Run

The original Road Warrior, Michael Squires, passed along this nugget: SIPNGAS or "sipping gas." Squires spotted the license plate on a white Toyota Prius on Charleston Boulevard at U.S. Highway 95.

It seems hybrid owners never tire of rubbing it in about how little fuel they use.

Contact reporter Francis McCabe at fmccabe @reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2904.