By Arnold M. Knightly, Boulder City Review

State Sen. Joe Hardy fought for the Boulder City Bypass issue in Carson City for eight years before finally squeezing out enough votes to change state law that will allow a toll road funded by a private-public partnership.

Now it’s time for the private investors to deliver more than promises, he said.

“I’ve had people approach me that they want to either pay for the whole thing or be involved with the payment of the whole thing,” said Hardy, who lives in Boulder City. “Now we’ll find out if they’re really serious about this.”

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By Arnold M. Knightly, Boulder City Review

Boulder City is getting stern opposition on two fronts in its attempt to ban tractor-trailers from the new Hoover Dam Bypass Bridge.

A tractor-trailer haeds southbound on U.S. Highway 93 on Tuesday, Jan. 18, traveling past the Hacienda hotel-casino toward the Hoover Dam Bypass Bridge. Officials from the trucking industry said last week they plan to fight any attempt to ban the trucks from using the new $240 million bridge. Photo by Arnold M. Knightly

Trucking industry officials said last week they plan to fight any attempt to keep trucks off the bridge and send them back through Laughlin and Bullhead City, Ariz. Meanwhile officials from those cities said they don’t want the trucks to return, either.

Officials from both groups visited Boulder City separately last week to appraise the traffic problem and express concerns about rerouting the trucks off the bypass bridge.

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By Arnold M. Knightly, Boulder City Review

To the apparent surprise of no one in Boulder City, traffic has become a major problem since the Hoover Dam Bypass Bridge opened Oct. 19.

Regional Transportation Commission general manager Jacob Snow said during a Dec. 29 public hearing that the problem is so bad that the town is dealing with a “state of emergency.”

He also said a proposed city bypass needs to change from a state project to part of the proposed federal Interstate 11 between Phoenix and Las Vegas.

Heavy traffic flows in and out of Boulder City in a recent photo taken near Railroad Pass hotel-casino. Traffic has become a major commercial and safety concern since the Hoover Dam Bypass Bridge opened in October, bring tractor-trailers back to U.S. 93 through the city. Photo courtesy of RTC

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By Arnold M. Knightly, Boulder City Review

The city is continuing its effort to pressure the Federal Highway Administration to declare “emergency exemption” to keep commercial truck from crossing the bypass bridge due to the heavy traffic on the highway through town.

At a morning press conference, Boulder City Mayor Roger Tobler said the city has partnered with Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada and Nevada Department of Transportation in asking federal officials to reroute the trucks back onto U.S. Highway 95 until a permanent solution is in place.

It would be the same route trucks used after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 until the Hoover Dam Bypass Bridge opened Oct. 19.

The long-term solution, according to RTC General Manager Jacob Snow is to reposition the discussion about the Boulder City Bypass route to part of the Interstate 11 federal highway proposal so the project could become a federal funding priority.

The estimated cost to build the bypass would be $360 million if it was started today, said Rudy Malfabon, deputy director of Southern Nevada for the state transportation department. He added that the cost will increase the longer the project takes to get funded.

Snow said an estimated 34,000 vehicles pass through the city every day, an increase of nearly 1,000 vehicles before the bypass bridge opened. The congestion problem is due to the nearly 1,100 large trucks that can now use the route that was closed to them when the highway crossed Hoover Dam.

While that number doesn’t seem like a lot, trucks move at a slower, more deliberate pace that causes traffic to slow. The bypass bridge opening also now allows other non-commercial trucks that were banned prior – including moving vans, certain buses, ect. – to now use the route.