The Nevada Department of Transportation recently awarded a $58.6 million construction contract to Aggregate Industries SWR, Inc. to widen and upgrade a 6-mile stretch of Blue Diamond Road (State Route 160) in southwest Clark County.
Project plans call for expanding the asphalt highway from two to four travel lanes between Mile Markers 16 and 22 while rebuilding and paving the eastbound lanes from the western edge of the Mountain Springs Community to just before the Nye County line.
New video of today’s construction blasting along S.R. 160, near Mt. Potosi, in south Clark County, removing fractured bedrock for a $58.6 million, 6-mile-long highway widening project that began this summer. @nyecounty @ClarkCountyNV @RTCSNV pic.twitter.com/slTf5yylz7
— Nevada DOT (@nevadadot) October 19, 2018
“This is vital southwest valley corridor serves as a crucial link between Las Vegas and Pahrump,” said NDOT Director Rudy Malfabon. “We are pleased to start this final widening phase between two communities that have experienced rapid development in recent years. This highway improvement will expand capacity and enhance motorist safety while also improving mobility and reliability.”
Other contract work consists of placing 5 miles of raised concrete median barrier, installing new signage and flattening side slopes for safer turnouts, as well as hydro-seeding 28 acres and planting 784 new trees while salvaging and replanting over 1,000 cactuses. The Mountain Springs Community, meanwhile, will receive new frontage roads, improved intersection lighting and an emergency signal for Clark County Volunteer Fire Station #79.
Construction additionally entails new cattleguards and a wildlife undercrossing near Mile Marker 18, with 10 miles of combined deer and tortoise fencing. Crews also will place 590 boulders, 14,000 cubic yards of rip-rap, and 1,706 tons decorative rock for landscaping and aesthetics that also help with erosion control and stormwater runoff.
Plans additionally call for placing flood control channels, box culverts and 6 miles of storm drainage pipe up to 4 feet in diameter.
Contractors, in total, will use 2.4 million pounds of reinforcing steel – or enough to build 650 cars – and move enough dirt to fill 120 Olympic-sized swimming pools. The project is scheduled to start in September, with anticipated completion in August 2020.
Motorists should use caution while traveling through the work zone, heed construction signage, and take alternate detour routes, if possible.
