Work is underway to make a range of improvements to the Mill Street corridor that will enhance traffic flows and increase safety for drivers, pedestrians and cyclists.
Rob Sabo/NNBW
Anyone who has traveled Mill Street near Interstate 580 knows first-hand how difficult it can be to navigate the roadway, especially when trying to access the various side streets west of the freeway during congested afternoon traffic.
Work is underway to make a range of improvements to the Mill Street corridor that will enhance traffic flows and increase safety for drivers, pedestrians and cyclists. With more than 23,000 vehicles per day traveling Mill Street, capacity is already a major issue, and that number is expected to top 27,000 cars per day by 2040, said Kim Diegle, project manager for the Regional Transportation Commission.
Work began in April on the Mill Street capacity and safety project. Titan Electrical Contracting is undergrounding electrical utilities in some areas, while the City of Reno has already performed advanced sewer line and storm drain work, Diegle said. General contractor Q&D Construction is expected to wrap up a long list of roadway improvements and safety enhancements in the second or third quarter of 2026.
“The project stems from a traffic study conducted more than a decade ago,” Diegle said, “and we did a more recent study in 2021 to ensure the improvements we planned still make sense.”
One of the most significant improvements on the nearly one-mile stretch of Mill Street from Yori Avenue to Terminal Way east of the freeway is adding 500 feet of new roadway from Kietzke Lane to the I-580 onramps so that motorists have free-flowing access to the freeway, Diegle noted.
“That will create a dedicated lane to the southbound I-580 freeway,” she said.
Other improvements will greatly enhance traffic flows on Mill Street. Access to Mill Street from Redwood Place and Louise Street will be eliminated, while Golden Way on the north side of Mill Street will be extended through to Market Street on the south. A new signal light will be added to regulate the new intersection.
Reservation Drive and Matley Lane will be reworked and modified into right-in, right-out only traffic patterns. Access to Sunshine Lane will remain unchanged. Additional improvements include adding dedicated bike lanes from Yori to Terminal and constructing continuous sidewalks to ensure the entire corridor is in compliance with Americans With Disabilities standards.
“There’s a lot of challenges with existing access between Market Street and Mill Street with those short connection roads,” Diegle said. “We have a lot of backups that occur, especially in the afternoons.
“We are consolidating access on the south side of Mill Street and creating a new extension so that it becomes a signalized intersection that provides safe access from all directions.”
The approximately $30 million project is funded through RTC’s nearly $.50-cent per gallon fuel tax and includes about $15.3 million for construction, as well as engineering and right of way services and right of way acquisitions, Diegle said.
Emily LeBlanc, project manager with Q&D, said one of the biggest challenges associated with the project is extensive coordination with the many businesses and stakeholders in the area, which include the Reno Sparks Indian Colony, Nevada Department of Transportation, and City of Reno. Multiple businesses on Mill Street also require access during the project.
“We have to keep access to businesses while completing the project and maintaining traffic flows,” LeBlanc said. “That is a main concern for any reconstruction project, but Mill Street is just such a heavily trafficked area.”
Motorists can expect intermittent lane closures during the 250-day construction timeline, LeBlanc added, though there should always be at least one lane open in each direction.
“There will be points when we are working during the day and we can take a lane when it doesn’t affect traffic, but if taking a lane is cumbersome to traffic that work will have to happen at night,” she said.
“It all depends on how far we get in this construction season and what we can button up,” LeBlanc added. “Sometimes we have winters where we can keep going with concrete work, and sometimes we have winters where we pretty much can do nothing.”
Q&D will start its work on the project by adding concrete improvements – gutters, sidewalks and driveways – on the north and south sides before beginning work on the roadway, LeBlanc said. The handful of businesses whose driveways have direct access to Mill Street will be notified well in advance as work approaches their doorsteps, she added.
Motorists also can expect some lane closures as paving work approaches the busy intersection of Kietzke Lane and Mill Street this fall, LeBlanc said.
“It’s really hard to allow people to still use an intersection and complete the work,” she said. “Intersections are always really hard. We're quite a bit away from getting to that — we are tackling the east side, which is a smaller piece to chew on — but as we get closer to that intersection we will have more strategy meetings to ensure the phasing makes sense. There’s probably going to be quite a bit of night work that will have to happen because we will be able to get a lot more done with less disruptions.”
“We are really excited to get this project started with Q&D,” Diegle added. “It’s been a long time coming. It’s been a lot of coordination on the front end, and we are happy to see it begin and make the community better overall.”