Meeting to focus on effects of Fairview modifications

Easing the effects of upcoming freeway-related street work on Fairview Drive will be highlighted this week.

Vehicles "just buzz by here," said Nils Sharpe, a resident of the Quail Run Senior Resort Community.

Members of the Regional Transportation Commission will consider how to best address the noise concerns of residents along Fairview Drive during a meeting Wednesday.

Roughly 20 homes - including Sharpe's - have patios facing Fairview, which will be modified from two to four lanes to allow for increased traffic that will be funneled down Fairview once the next section of the freeway is complete and ends at Fairview.

Making the retaining wall between these homes and the street significantly taller has been ruled out because a group of potential contractors said the foundation won't hold the extra weight, so they didn't want to make the height addition.

Another option would be to add greenery as a barrier or to provide these residents with better windows, for example, said Harvey Brotzman, the city's senior transportation engineer.

Replacing the residents' windows could cost at least $150,000. A new retaining wall probably would cost more, Brotzman said.

Quail Run is comprised of 129 units and is home to about 200 people. While the traffic is now loud and makes "dishes shake" inside Sharpe's home, he and other residents are even more concerned about the loss of the left-turn lane on Fairview that now allows residents to enter the community at Bobwhite Drive.

"Getting in is going to be a bear," Sharpe said. "We are getting up in years, we're not all as sharp a drivers as we used to be."

Public Works counted the number of vehicles now rolling down Fairview through its intersection with Saliman Road and determined that it carries 10,800 vehicles each day.

The number of vehicles rolling through the area could rise to 20,000 once the freeway reaches Fairview. When the freeway is complete in 2010 or 2011, traffic is expected to drop again, to 13,300 cars daily once the freeway extends to the intersection of Highway 395 and Highway 50 in South Carson.

Carson City would have had to pay an estimated $2 million to buy street-side property that would have allowed the turn lane to remain. The city decided last year the amount of traffic coming in and out of the retirement community isn't high enough to justify the cost or to put in a traffic signal or stop sign at the intersection.

"It's going to be chaos," said Roger Chastain, another Quail Run resident. "They might as well park an ambulance at the gate to take care of the people who are going to be hurt because of the wrecks."

Chastain also wondered why the freeway didn't send the vehicles along Colorado Street instead of Fairview, because it already has four lanes, he said.

The ramps aren't as suitable for Colorado Street because it's home to more homes than Fairview, and it has no traffic signal allowing vehicles to enter South Carson Street, Brotzman said.

The widening project is expected to go out to bid early this fall. The budgeted amount for the project is $5.5 million and will include underground utility lines, pavement reconstruction, new curbs and gutters, additional sidewalks, drainage improvements, traffic-signal modifications, lighting and landscaping.

This next phase of the freeway is going out to bid on July 19, according to the Nevada Department of Transportation.

If you go

WHAT: Carson City Regional Transportation Commission

When: 5:30 p.m. Wednesday

WHERE: Sierra Room, Carson City Community Center, 851 E. William St.

• Contact reporter Terri Harber at tharber@nevadaappeal.com or 882-2111, ext. 215.