Transportation boards OK snowplow routes, zero-emission plan

The Carson City Regional Transportation Commission approved additional routes for the city’s snowplow-route map Wednesday.

From Vista Lane to West Appion Way, more than a dozen cul-de-sacs and streets were added as secondary (priority two) routes. That designation is between emergency (priority one) routes and nonessential (priority three) routes.

The vote was 4-0 in favor. Commissioner Lucia Maloney abstained because she resides on one of the affected streets and wanted to avoid a conflict of interest.

“Our primary objective with the snowplow maps is the emergency access throughout the city,” said Justin Tierney, operations manager for Carson City Public Works.

Top-priority routes include access to medical facilities and bus routes for Jump Around Carson and the school district, Tierney said.

“Once those primaries (routes) are finished up, then we move over to the secondaries,” he said.

Tierney said there are more than 20 staff members in the city’s streets division, and they break into shifts during major storm events. The division has both dump trucks and smaller trucks with a variety of equipment. Smaller trucks are used for the tighter downtown area, said Tierney.

Commissioner Gregory Novak asked how deep snow must be for the city to start plowing.

“We try to get on it right away because as you know, as soon as somebody drives on it, or you walk on it, it’s just compacting it into the ground,” Tierney said. “As far as I’m concerned, the sooner you can get on it, the better.”

Carson City Supervisor Lisa Schuette, who sits on RTC, asked if the added routes will have a greater fiscal impact.

Tierney said they wouldn’t.

“A lot of those areas that are proposed … those are roads that we’re usually hitting because we have issues there,” he said. “We’re already in the area.”

• In other action, convening before the RTC, the Carson Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (CAMPO) approved a contract with CDM Smith Inc. — not to exceed $191,923.44 — to complete a zero-emission transition plan. CDM Smith is expected to complete the plan by Dec. 31, 2024.

On July 12, CAMPO approved a grant agreement with NV Energy in the amount of $225,000 to complete the plan. No local match is required for the grant money, which stems from NV Energy’s Economic Recovery Transportation Electrification Plan.

The plan will make Carson City eligible for more federal funding, according to transportation officials, and will evaluate low- or no-emission vehicles and infrastructure with both local and regional partners.

“The zero-emission transition plan is really going to look at the transition to alternative fuels for Jump Around Carson transit system but also look at the larger fleet operations and fleet maintenance facilities in Carson City Public Works, which maintains those,” said Transportation Manager Chris Martinovich.

Additionally, Martinovich said the plan will set up CAMPO for changing federal requirements regarding greenhouse gas emissions.

“Establishing this plan gets us heading in that direction as required of the Federal Highway Administration,” he said.

Martinovich pointed out the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) issued a final rule in November requiring state transportation departments and metropolitan planning organizations to set targets for greenhouse gas reduction.

According to a Nov. 22 FHWA press release, the rule “will provide government transportation organizations a national framework to track transportation-related greenhouse gas emissions (GHG), along with the flexibility to set their own targets for reduction.”

“Every state has its own unique climate challenges, and every state ought to have the data, funding, and flexibility it needs to meet those challenges head on,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in the release.