About 70 years ago, Pyramid Lake Road, near Reno, was a dust road and a route that connected small farms. Today, Pyramid’s road has evolved to an arterial arterial with traffic that serves 50,000 vehicles daily.
In order to catch up, the Nevada Transportation Department (Ndot) has made a massive reconstruction of the critical road that will transform it into a modern multimodal hallway for a rapid growth region.
The work in a 2.5 miles section of the north-south urban road to the east of Reno has been underway since mid-2013. At the end of this summer, the project in Suburban Sparks will have rebuilt and widened much of The road from four to six lanes and added bike lanes, sidewalks, sidewalks and gutters. Other improvements include a shared path of 10 feet protected by barrier on one side of the road, smart traffic signs, sound walls, improved lighting, landscaping and an improved drainage infrastructure.
“These updates are designed to improve traffic, safety and accessibility flow for all users,” says Nanette Maxwell, head of Ndot Senior Projects, the main project agency. “This project will not only reduce traffic congestion and travel times, but will also generate significant savings for vehicles, cyclists and pedestrians” because improvements are expected to reduce accidents.
The interested parties remained up to date with the disruptive work items with a strong public commitment campaign.
Photo courtesy of snowfall transportation
Keeping the traffic loose
The effort of $ 66 million-the first phase of the six-phase Pyramid Highway Pyramid-is funded by a combination of federal, state and local sources, including a $ 23 million federal that uses better investments per Take advantage of the development of the grant, with Ndot and the Regional. The Transportation Commission (RTC) of the county of Washhoe also contributes. California’s granite construction is the general contractor.
The population of the area of Reno has grown by 50% from 2001 to 500,000, with the runner to many of this residents, and probably the home of future. The remaining phases of the project are designed to expand capacity, improve multimodal accessibility, and improve connectivity in rapid growth areas in the east and north of Reno and suburban sparks.
The road, designated 445 State Route, extends to the north of Reno to Lake Pyramid, the third largest lake in Nevada, behind Mead Lake and Tahoe Lake. For Reno, it is still an important way to the growing population. About 40,000 people live two kilometers from the project and more than 90% of them work outside the area. This maintained the flow of traffic at the top of the construction equipment priorities.
“A significant realization that differentiated this project compared to similar projects in the main corridors, it was that during construction we maintained the same amount of traffic through lanes during daytime hours, which practically left the typical motorcyclist without affecting the Construction process, “says Granite Matthew Weber, responsible for construction projects. “This is a great realization for a project of this scale.”
Part of this included the use of the Drone image, which was incorporated into the planning of traffic flow, paving and the general construction phase.
“The Drone image has been integral for the success of this project,” says Weber. “Drone’s current images planning is a luxury that this project was able to take advantage of, which led to better plans that reduced the impact on the public.”
The 2,200 feet of the Soundwalls project are adorned with nature -inspired elements derived from the region.
Photo courtesy of snowfall transportation
Effective dissemination
For their part, the public was mostly traffic interruptions.
“The motorists were well adapted to the project,” says Alma Piceno-Ramirez, an assistant Ndot district engineer. “We had no incidents related to our traffic control.”
In addition to showing patience, the public also helped make the project more aesthetically pleasant.
“Drone’s current images planning is a luxury that this project was able to take advantage of, which led to better plans that reduced the impact on the public.”
—Matthew Weber, project manager, granite
Formed in the 2,200 feet of sound walls of the project are elements inspired by nature such as fish and waves that pay tribute to Lake Pyramid, about 30 kilometers from the construction area and the northern terminal of the road. The ruptures on the decorative wave pattern in the portions of the wall were springs to some of the audience, giving rise to a quick response from the design team.
Ndot worked with the public to develop alternatives and solutions to mask the unwanted break of the pattern while improving global design with metal works of art.
“This unexpected challenge was resolved with the help and contributions of the community,” says Piceno-Ramirez. “Ndot provided some representations that dimmed the wave break for the community to vote through the project’s website. The two with the most votes will be made and added to the walls. “”
Together with the vote on sound wall designs, the public was able to use the website and other communication tools to keep track of the project and relate to NDOT.
“Having a project website and various communication methods with the community and interested parties are valuable,” says Piceno-Ramirez. “We have been able to answer public comments quite quickly through the website’s email capabilities and continue with these methods of communication to future projects.”
The improvement of the drainage infrastructure along the aisle of the 445 State Route was a key element of the project.
Photo courtesy of snowfall transportation
High pressure situation
Along with the walls of the ground, the project was found with an unidentified topic below the ground that required that it operated with ginteria around a high -pressure water line that serves the nearby community of Spanish sources .
The local utility of the water notified the construction equipment that the line had to be at least 2 feet under ground, with a subsequent review of the underground utility exploration data that revealed a small section Of the pipe would have less than 2 feet of coverage.
“The meetings were held between Ndot, Granite and the Local Water Authority to develop a work plan that allows the contractor to continue working,” says Aaron Lobato, coordinator of the Ndot road design project.
Explaining too much of the high pressure line could invite the failure of the pipes and stop the water flow was not an option. The crews addressed the challenge working on increases of 50 feet to excavate and eliminate the material from the surface to the subgrow, which was classified and compacted. The pipe was temporarily covered with gravel, which will be replaced by an aggregate base layer that will be added as part of the final construction of the road.
The current work is part of the first of the six phases aimed at updating the hallway.
Photo courtesy of snowfall transportation
The collaborative elements of the project, from robust public commitment to the website to real -time multiagency cooperation, were cited as examples of understanding the importance of the Pyramid Road for Reno today and tomorrow. .
“This project is of regional importance and will provide significant benefits to the growing community,” says Amanda Callegari, RTC engineering manager. “To guarantee their successful delivery, the RTC and the NDOT have joined forces to implement these vital improvements.”
Callegari assures that intelligent efforts also included the collaboration of RTC with NDOT through the national process of environmental policy and completing the environmental impact study of the project as part of “an association that will continue throughout the Remaining phases of the project. “
The most ambitious of the remaining phases, Phase 3, proposes the construction of a new connection between the Pyramid Road and the United States 395 directly to the north of Reno, offering an additional route for North-South trips.
Currently, the RTC advances a part of phase 5 known as the exchange of pyramid/sparks to a 60% design level to reduce future conflicts of right of passage with the extension of development in the area.
In addition, design work begins phase 3 to better plan the necessary funding and evaluate the potential construction containers.
