Tuesday, June 13, 2017 | 4:03 p.m.
CARSON CITY — The Nevada Department of Transportation is celebrating its 100th anniversary. In 1917, the agency started overseeing a network of gravel roads and is now in charge of some 5,400 miles of paved highways.
In 1919, then-solider Dwight D. Eisenhower, who would later become president, traveled across Nevada as part of a cross-country convoy. “From Orr’s Ranch, Utah, to Carson City, Nevada, is one succession of dust, ruts, pits and holes,” he wrote.
Of the first state highway projects, all but one were gravel, the cheapest type of material. In mid-1919, the first paved construction project was awarded at a cost of $72,000 for 5.4 miles of roadway south of Reno.
The history of the agency is compiled in a new publication, Silver Century, put together by the department’s communications staff using old reports and newspaper stories. It contains scores of photos of Nevada road construction through the first 100 years.
The department started with fewer than 20 employees and now has about 1,600. Its current budget is estimated at $660 million a year. It has had 17 directors. In the early days, highway patrolmen maintained the roads.
Much of the early highway construction was done on old railroad alignments. In the 1920s, the department purchased a failed rail line between Las Vegas and Beatty for $3,300. The department built 129 miles of roads between the two cities.
The state initially instituted a 45 mph speed limit, but that was removed and replaced with signs cautioning motorists to engage in “safe driving.” The top speed limit now is 80 mph on some stretches of highway in rural areas.
The publication details how the agency has dealt with flooding, record snowfalls, roadside cleanup, beautification projects and the loss of most of its staff during World War II as workers joined the armed forces.
In 1967, the department completed its first beautification project, screening from view a large auto junkyard along Interstate 15 in Clark County. Now underway, Project Neon on I-15 in Las Vegas is the largest project in the history of the department.
