Contract awarded for I-15 widening

CARSON CITY -- A contract to widen Interstate 15 north of the Spaghetti Bowl was awarded Thursday to a team of companies, CH2M Hill, a global engineering and construction firm, and Las Vegas Paving Corp.

The "design-build" project, in which the companies plan the project and construct it in one ongoing process, is expected to cost about $242 million and take until 2010 to complete. Construction should begin in the spring.

The design-build team is calling itself North Corridor Constructors.

"I promised Nevadans when I took office that I would make widening I-15 a priority," Gov. Jim Gibbons said in announcing the award. "I set aside surplus money in my budget, and the Legislature agreed on the project's importance. Now, Southern Nevadans will get traffic relief up to two years faster, thanks to the design-build concept."

Susan Martinovich, director of the Department of Transportation, said the design-build concept saves time by not using the traditional bid process.

"Traditional highway projects require the design to be finished first, then the bidding, before construction can begin," she said. The design-build system allows actual construction to start while the designing is still taking place."

Las Vegas motorists should start to see the building begin on the I-15 North Corridor project within nine months.

The project includes widening I-15 from six lanes to 10 lanes from the Spaghetti Bowl to Lake Mead Boulevard; widening I-15 from four and five lanes to eight lanes from Lake Mead Boulevard to Craig Road; reconfiguring the Lake Mead Boulevard interchange; and building auxiliary lanes between interchanges to facilitate merging.

It also will include Intelligent Transportation System improvements, such as dynamic message signs, ramp metering and closed-circuit television cameras.

The team was selected from two proposals submitted for the project.

The other proposal was from PBS&J and Frehner Construction.