Dear Highway User,

At a recent presentation highlighting NDOT Construction Budget Cuts, NDOT Director Susan Martinovich outlined reduced NDOT capital improvement projects for roads in Nevada. Fiscal years 2009-2011 will have capital improvement budgets averaging $334 million. This represents a reduction averaging roughly $119 million per year compared to 2000-2007 when capital improvements averaged over $453 million per year.

This is a decrease of 26%, while construction cost inflation has gone up in excess 40 per cent during that same period of time.

Source: Page 28 NDOT Fact Book 2007. Click here for the full report.

In other news, the Governor has proposed another $40 million budget cut, according to a Review Journal article on April 1, 2008. It reported that Governor Gibbons and Budget Director Andrew Clinger suggested taking back the $40 million in general funds appropriated for the $170 million expansion of I-15 at Craig Road. Highway funds would replace these funds, further reducing the NDOT construction budget by another $40 million.

And on a final note, NDOT Statewide Strategic Highway Safety Plan Summit took place in late March.

The Nevada Department of Transportation hosted a safety conference in Las Vegas. Over 150 persons attended the two-day event and worked on an aggressive plan which was created in order to save over 100 lives each year on State roads. More information and a roll-out date for this plan will be announced in the near future and the newsletter will be sure to follow the progress made.

Sincerely,
Nevada Highway Users Coalition

On March 20th, 2008 TRIP, a national nonprofit transportation research group based in Washington D.C., joined with AAA Nevada to announce their latest report, “Getting Home Safely: An Analysis of Highway Safety in Nevada,” which examines traffic safety in the Silver State and includes a list of sections of state roadways and intersections with the highest rate of serious traffic crashes.

Two press conferences were held on the 20th, one in Las Vegas and the other in Reno, and were led by TRIP’s director of policy and research, Frank Moretti and Michael Geeser, AAA Nevada spokesman.

The extensive, state-wide media coverage of both the Las Vegas and Reno press conferences speaks to the public’s growing interest in this important report and the future of our roads. For complete media coverage, please click here: http://www.tripnet.org/NevadaCoverageMarch2008.htm

Please click here to review the complete TRIP Report.

I-580 construction pushes on
In spite of project set-backs and delays, work continues on the
$394 million I-580 Highway project from Reno to Carson City.
http://www.nevadaappeal.com/article/20080330/NEWS01/25463327/-1/rss02

Department of Transportation Public
Private Partnership Meeting
April 10, 2008 - 10:30 a.m.

This meeting will be held at the Department’s Las Vegas office at 123 Washington Ave. It will be video-conferenced to NDOT’s Carson City office at
1263 South Stewart Street.

In 2007, NHSTSA estimates that the cost of vehicle crashes in Nevada was $2.2 billion, which is $876 per driver. These totals include medical costs, lot economic and household productivity, psychological or emotional trauma, property damage and travel delays.

Source: National Highway Safety Traffic Safety Administration Crashcost model.