Highway 50 work under way

Work began this week repaving Highway 50 in the Dayton area.

The $6 million project extends from Deer Run Road near Carson City’s border to about a mile east of State Route 341, the road to Gold Hill and Virginia City.

Nevada Department of Transportation’s Meg Ragonese said the primary cost is the repaving work but the project includes “a lot of different safety enhancements.”

She said that includes raised concrete medians at intersections to improve left turn safety as well as acceleration lanes heading west from both SR341 and Alfonso at the industrial area east of there.

In addition, there will be safety features added at the V&T Bridge and a small frontage road at Dorff and Jeanette just south of where SR341 reaches U.S. 50.

There also will be a concrete barrier from Flint Drive down the hill to Carson City to prevent head-on crashes that have killed several people over the past few years.

Ragonese said a lot of the work will take place at night but there will be some daytime construction. She cautioned drivers in the area to be aware of work crews and drive carefully.

NDOT officials held an informational meeting on the project for area residents Thursday night.

One of the project’s biggest fans has been Carson Sheriff Kenny Furlong who said when the project was put out to bid that education and enforcement can only do so much.

“In the longer run, we need to create a safer highway structurally,” he said, adding this project will accomplish that.

At SR341, the changes will create what engineers call a “T” intersection. There will be an acceleration lane for cars heading toward Carson City, a left turn lane for cars heading to Virginia City and a right turn lane for cars turning onto SR341 from the east — all neatly separated by raised concrete medians. There will also be an acceleration lane for cars turning left and heading east from SR341 onto U.S. 50.

A similar “T” intersection will be created at Flint Drive, but neither will have signal lights.