Volunteer Boulevard motorists get no relief any time soon

One of the biggest complaints about roadwork in Southern Nevada is that crews tend to fix a street, then months later, tear it up again for a different project.

Not only is it a waste of money, critics say, but it lengthens the aggravation of dealing with cone zones.

The Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada is working to coordinate projects among municipalities as well as with utility companies, and Clark County’s Water, Sewer and Flood districts with a new coordinating committee designed to prevent roadwork do-overs.

A big, lengthy project near Henderson Executive Airport is making Warrior reader Vera a little nuts:

“I use a nest of streets in the southeast daily and they’re starting to wear on my last nerve. The streets are Volunteer Boulevard, Executive Airport Drive and Via Inspirada. They are all a nightmare of construction.

“I am sure that at some point, we in the southeast will be rewarded handsomely with beautifully paved, beautifully organized and beautifully landscaped streets, but when?

“These streets have been under construction for some time with a lot of commuter and construction traffic morning and evening and moderate traffic in the middle of the day. There is actual construction with scores of people — some who just walk around scratching their helmets and some who are working. There are huge semis bringing in a variety of needs such as sand, gravel and water. Volunteer used to be lovely to Executive Airport Drive with four lanes and well-spaced traffic on both. Now they are down to two lanes, two directions each and heavy traffic.

“Can you shed some light on what is going on, how long will this last and when will this all be over?”

Tough news, Vera. You won’t get any relief on this project for nearly a year.

When Henderson and the RTC started the project in December, it looked to some motorists like just another ho-hum widening effort with Volunteer being expanded to four lanes west from Executive Airport Drive to Las Vegas Boulevard, near the M Resort. It was deemed important because motorists from the growing Anthem, Sun City Anthem and Inspirada neighborhoods needed greater access to Interstate 15.

Turns out, it’s more than just a widening. The Clark County Regional Flood Control District also is expanding the drainage system along Volunteer and Executive Airport with flood control measures to help drain standing water from the streets.

The widening project will drop a median along the center of Volunteer and place bicycle lanes along the sides in both directions.

Similar improvements are planned for Executive Airport Drive.

It’s no secret that road construction critics get worked up whenever a municipality has a road project, followed months later by a new drainage, water or sewer line project that tears up a street.

Not here.

So rejoice. Both projects are being done simultaneously. The only bad news is that it’ll take 15 months to finish, so that puts the completion around March or April next year.

Hopefully, the commission will coordinate more of these types of efforts in the future.

Out-of-state smog checks

It’s getting close to the end of the college school year and Warrior reader Nick has an inquiry about what to do about emissions tests when a Nevada-registered vehicle is out of state:

“My daughter goes to school out of state, but has a car that’s licensed in Nevada and the registration will be due before she gets home. Can she get an emissions test in that state or should she just wait until she gets home?”

It’s probably unwise to wait, Nick, because the state will add a penalty for the late registration. And, unfortunately, Nevada doesn’t have reciprocal smog-testing agreements with every state.

The best solution, said Kevin Malone of the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles, is for your student to send in a check for the new registration along with an emission control exemption application, which is on the DMV website.

It’s an easy one-page form and the registration will be processed.

However, an applicant also has to take the vehicle in for a Nevada smog check within 30 days of its return to the state. A motorist who fails to do that can be fined.

Heavy traffic

A couple of substantially sized conventions are in town this week and the first major sporting event at the T-Mobile Arena is scheduled Saturday.

The National Hardware Show 2016 runs Wednesday through Friday at the Las Vegas Convention Center. About 30,000 tool-slingers are expected to be there.

Also Wednesday through Friday, an estimated 17,500 are due to attend the Hospitality Design 2016 Expo and Conference at Mandalay Bay. Expect high vehicle volumes around those venues at the open and close, around 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.

A new fan base will need to figure out the T-Mobile ingress and egress Saturday with the Canelo Alvarez-Amir Khan boxing match, which has a 6 p.m. start time. Traffic should begin picking up at around 2 p.m. for the arrivals for the start of the 3 p.m. undercard.

The San Gennaro Italian food and music festival plants its green, white and red flag in a new corner of the valley this year. Watch out for heavy traffic at Craig Ranch Park at Craig Road at Commerce Street between 4 p.m. and midnight Thursday and Friday and from noon to midnight Saturday and Sunday.

And don’t forget that Friday is First Friday, which means all the traditional entry points to downtown Las Vegas may have more traffic than usual at sunset.

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