By: Arthur Anderson
–Photo Courtesy of the Nevada Department of Transportation
A little over a year ago I wrote a blog discussing the Virginia Street Bus RAPID Transit Extension Project. This picture was taken in 1965 during The Virginia Street Widening Project, where Virginia street was widened to 4 lanes so that more traffic could easily got to the casinos downtown. Fast forward 50+ years the Transit Extension Project will reduce most of Virginia down to 2 lanes and widen the sidewalks to anywhere from 5 to 12 feet. The project is designed more around bus and foot traffic.
This means that traffic patterns from Liberty to Plumb will be altered with a 2-foot median in the road preventing left hand turns, less Virginia Street parking and fewer traffic lights. I think most of these changes will be a great enhancement to the Virginia Street corridor but will probably be a little maddening to regular visitors, such as yourselves. So the purpose of this blog is give you a reminder that work will start at the end of this year, with major road improvements starting Spring of 2019, let’s hope it doesn’t look like the picture above.
If you are interested in seeing conceptual drawings and videos visit the RTC site. As I learn more about timelines I will pass them along so that you are better prepared to deal with the construction when you come to Double Edge.