RTC officials identify transportation projects, initiatives and prepare for policy changes heading into 2017

Transportation is a key industry to watch heading into 2017.

Lee Gibson, executive director for the Regional Transportation Commission, identified some of the policy challenges as they look toward the 2017 legislator and the Trump Administration. He explained that there are several policy factors that are going to impact the transportation industry in 2017. It will be important to see how these play out and how Nevada will fit into these changes.

These factors include the Trump Administration’s plan for about a trillion dollar investment in American infrastructure. They are going to be looking at how to leverage private sector investment into transportation, Gibson said.

“I think those factors are going to be the drivers of what we are going to be seeing in national policy over the next three to six months.”

With this in mind, he said, Nevada needs to look to the future and look at legislation at the state level that will leverage and be participants in public-private partnerships more fully.

“I am very proud of the fact that in the State of Nevada … we have a heavy focus on public-private partnerships in the public transportation arena,” Gibson said.

He further said they might have to work to expand that model to be in sync with the Trump Administration policies.

“Another area from a policy perspective we need to be paying attention to is autonomous vehicles,” Gibson said. “...It is going to be important for us to be at the table for that discussion with regard to getting ready for the future.”

He explained that a lot of people think there will be a steady transition to autonomous vehicles. However, if you look at other types of technology, such as cell phones, it has advanced very rapidly in a short period of time. This could potentially happen with autonomous vehicles and the transportation industry needs to prepare for that.

“That, to me, will be the real exciting challenge,” Gibson.

As northern Nevada attracts more people to the region, it brings additional challenges to transportation. The increase in people is already having an effect on the roadways. Gibson said he has personally noticed an increase of delays and congestion within the past six months, specifically between Mayberry and I-80 on McCarran as well as at McCarran and I-580.

“Clearly the growth is having an impact,” Gibson said.

RTC has several projects in process as well as planned projects that will help with some of the congestion accessibility issues.

“For the projects you will see in the next five to 10 years, we have been doing detailed studies on those for the past few years,” Amy Cummings, director of planning for RTC, said.

They are currently working on the Southeast Connector, which is scheduled to be completed in late 2017. RTC is also currently working on improvements to the Pyramid and McCarran intersection, which is scheduled to be completed in Spring 2018.

Cummings said they will be starting preliminary designs on improvements to Oddie Boulevard and Mill Street starting in 2017.

RTC also has two big upcoming projects RAPID improvement projects. The first is 4th Street/Prater Way Bus RAPID Transit Project, which will extend bus service from Evans Avenue to Pyramid Way. Construction for the project is expected to start in the first quarter of 2017. The second project is the Virginia Street Bus RAPID Transit Extension. The project is designed to improve bus saturations, sidewalks, crosswalks and bike lanes in the Midtown area. The project will also extend RAPID service up to UNR to better serve university students and create better connectivity from the university to downtown and Midtown.

In 2017, they are also going to start preliminary designs on the Spaghetti Bowl project as well as preliminary designs for improvements to North Valleys. These projects are collaborative efforts with NDOT.

“That is going to be an extremely challenging effort,” Gibson said about the Spaghetti Bowl project. “We are going to have neighborhood issues, issues with state prioritization for funding, issues with federal prioritization for funding.”

The Spaghetti Bowl is part of a national transportation system.

“It is going to be a major push but it is going to be a sustained effort for many years to come,” Gibson said.

Along with these projects, RTC is also working to implement more electric buses. They currently have four in use and will add five additional electric buses for the 4th Street/Prater Way route.

“As we do replace buses moving forward we are looking at replacing them with electrics,” Cummings said.

As for the long-term, Gibson said they need to look at public transportation and its role in economic development.