Highway completion date set

     Associated Press
      RENO -- An interstate highway linking Reno with Carson City will be completed by the end of 2003 by diverting funds now earmarked for repairs to land acquisition, the state has announced.
      About $5 million set aside for improving U.S. Highway 395 between Washoe Hill and the Bowers Mansion turnoff will be used instead for the land purchases.
      "It just doesn't make sense to continue improving the existing highway in view of the high cost of the improvements and the acceleration of the freeway schedule," state Department of Transportation Director Tom Stephens said Friday.
      U.S. 395 is a four-lane undivided road from the Mount Rose highway south of Reno to the Bowers turnoff and is considered the busiest rural four-lane highway in the state.
      Once the new highway is completed to the west of U.S. 395, it will be designated Interstate 550, ending Carson City's role as one of only three state capitals in the country that is not connected to an interstate.
      Transfer of the $5 million should allow land acquisitions to be completed by the end of next year with a three-year construction period to begin in 2000.