News Headlines

Share to Twitter

Click the link below to share this story to Twitter.

Share to Twitter | Login to Twitter

Please note: If you are not logged in to Twitter on this device already, the story will not be shared. You may click the "Login" link to login to Twitter.

Back to Home

Some Applaud, Some Worry About Completion of I-580

Posted: 7:28 PM Jul 27, 2012
Reporter: Ed Pearce

Play Video

At long last the final section of the I-580 extension between Reno and Carson City is just about finished. That has some people cheering and others worried.

One thing all can agree on, is that this has been a long time coming.

Where to build this last segment of freeway between Reno and Carson City set up a classic not-in-my-back-yard debate, which ended more than 30 years ago with the decision to put it where no one objected.

$400 million dollars and decades later it's about to open. In all that time traffic has grown and for a time this became a very dangerous section of highway.

"We were losing 3 or 4 people each year to speeding accidents," remembers Andrew Lane resident David Jones.

So Jones and some of his neighbors with state backing created a grass roots safety program. School children painted signs urging motorists to slow to 50 mph. With enforcement speeds dropped and fatalities stopped.

But the traffic and the problems it brought continued.

"If we leave and have to turn left onto 395, you have to wait minutes for an opening," says Jones.

"About a hundred cars a day come through this 8.2 mile stretch and we hope that traffic will be alleviated by I-580"

But businesses which have relied on that traffic are nervous. No one knows what the loss will bring.

"Who's to say?" says Kelly Peitz, owner of the Old 395 Station, a combination gas stop convenience store. "I don't know that the locals will be in here enough to sustain the store, but that's what we're hoping for."

So she's been adding to her business, offering take out pizza, home baked cookies and a deli.

"There are a lot of people in this valley," she says. "Without this store, this fuel it could be pretty inconvenient for people. That's why we're trying to offer a lot. We're hoping for the best."

The new roadway won't open for a couple of more weeks, but Saturday the public gets a preview if they are curious. From 7 am to one, the northbound lanes will be open to runners, walkers and cyclists. The southbound lanes will be open to slow driving motorists between 8 and one.