Decision on route made decades ago

CARSON CITY -- Sometime early in the next decade, if all goes as planned, motorists making their way between Reno and the state capital probably will take the speediest route, a half-billion dollar freeway now under construction.

Rather than improve the existing U.S. Highway 395, the state is building Interstate 580 along a mountainside, requiring several bridges and the removal of tons of earth. The largest span, the Galena Creek Bridge, will run 1,719 feet.

The project, including its cost and location, has raised questions about whether scarce highway funds are being spent efficiently.

Nevada Department of Transportation officials and others said such questions are moot.

The decision on where to build the section of freeway was made more than 25 years ago, and it's too late to question the alignment years after right of way was bought and environmental studies completed, they said.

Dave Titzel, assistant district engineer over construction for the northwestern one-third of the state, said the agency did not recommend or seek the route decades ago.

"It was a political decision, not an engineering decision, on where to put the route," he said.

Lyn Mundt, a south Reno resident who has been involved in the project since the early 1980s, said the route selection process was public, which is why several superior alternatives were rejected.

"It was the early days of citizen involvement, and NDOT did not know how to deal with it," she said. "Every time they picked a route, citizens would object, and NDOT would walk off in a huff and come back with another plan. Finally, they just drew a line on the side of the hill where there were no houses so there was no protest."

Bob Rusk, a member of the Washoe County Commission in the 1970s who was involved in the early debate over the route, said that for better or worse, the alignment was chosen and the objective now is to finish the road.

Rusk, a Washoe Valley resident, said a later group of county elected political leaders made the final decision.

"I'm not giving an opinion about whether it is the right route or not," he said. "Right or wrong, we need to get this baby done. I'm totally supportive of that."

U.S. 395, the existing north-south arterial, which sees about 42,000 vehicle trips a day, is dangerous and the scene of frequent fatalities and head-on collisions, Rusk said. Safety was a major factor in moving forward with the divided freeway, he said.

Even with the safety concerns, critics still harp on what they say is a needlessly complicated and expensive road project.

Paul Enos, a Northern Nevada resident and executive director of the Nevada Motor Transport Association, is a critic despite the fact that his commute to the capital probably will improve with the highway's completion.

"I don't think it is a worthwhile project," he said. "I think we could have saved a lot of money and built it in a much simpler way if we had just applied a simple benefit-cost analysis. I know a benefit-cost analysis was done, and it wasn't used."

Enos said he was told by state transportation officials that it would have cost much less, about $125 million in today's dollars, to widen and improve the existing road, U.S. 95, making the alternative now under way much more costly.

Legislation passed this year appropriating $1 billion in existing taxes for future road construction projects statewide requires that they be analyzed to ensure there is a proven cost-effective benefit before they get a green light, he said.

Enos said Susan Martinovich, the new director of the Transportation Department, deserves some credit for working to change the way it does business.

"The department is working to make its process transparent and apply science to make sure we are doing the right projects," he said.

Clark County Commissioner Chris Giunchigliani, a former assemblywoman who frequently has traveled between Reno and Carson, referred to the Galena span as "the bridge to nowhere" and said the project was never really vetted with the Legislature before it was put out to bid.

"I really don't know why the route was chosen," she said. "It doesn't make a great deal of sense, particularly with the restricted amount of dollars we have."

Residents along the existing road might not have wanted an expanded freeway, but sometimes political leaders must make tough decisions that are in the best interests of everyone, Giunchigliani said.

While the Northern Nevada project is getting a big chunk of scarce road funds, it has been one of five "super projects" pursued for the state, Transportation Department spokesman Scott Magruder said.

The others are the Carson City bypass now under construction, the widening of U.S. Highway 95 in Las Vegas, which is now being completed, the widening of Interstate 15 to the California state line and the Hoover Dam bypass.

State elected officials also approved using $160 million in surplus funds earlier this year to widen Interstate 15 north of the Spaghetti Bowl. The total cost of that project, which is under way, is about $240 million.