Members of the Coalition to Stop the F Street Closure march on City Parkway under a U.S. 95 overpass from F Street and Bonanza Road in downtown Las Vegas to City Hall to attend a redevelopment agency meeting Wednesday, January 7, 2009.
Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2009 | 7:05 p.m.
Sun Archives
- Senate overrides F Street veto; cost estimated at $45M (6-1-2009)
- Senate panel advances initiative to reopen F Street (5-15-09)
- F Street: Taking on the Road to Nowhere (5-14-2008)
- Protesters march against closure of F Street (4-18-2009)
- Roadwork works up West Las Vegans (12-1-2008)
The state Transportation Board has agreed to apply for federal stimulus money to help reopen F Street -- a link between the historically black neighborhood and downtown Las Vegas.
“This was the right decision,” says Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford, D-Las Vegas, who pushed a bill through the 2009 Legislature to get this project started.
The transportation board agreed Wednesday it would use an undetermined amount of money from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act for the project.
Horsford said government agencies are in the process of estimating the cost and doing the design.
The Las Vegas City Redevelopment Agency is committing $2.5 million for design, Horsford said. The city of Las Vegas would allocate $20 million from the revenue collected from a 5-cent capital construction ad valorem tax.
The bill approved by the 2009 Legislature directed city and state transportation officials to “work collaboratively to fund the construction of the project.” The state was told to seek other sources of money and it must be designated a “high priority project” if additional money is found.
The bill also directed the state transportation department to provide money to cover the costs of design of the project if the amount exceeds $2.5 million contributed by the redevelopment agency.
The cost of the project is estimated to be anywhere from $25 million to $70 million. The Las Vegas City Council voted in 2006 to close F Street as part of the job to widen I-15 from the Spaghetti Bowl to Craig Road in North Las Vegas.
Horsford said this project is necessary to open the access of West Las Vegas to the city and to prevent possible litigation.
An environmental study must be done but that should take only about 18 months since much of the work has already been done, Horsford said.
The bill that included the F Street project was vetoed by Gov. Jim Gibbons but was overridden in the Assembly by a 29-13 vote and in the Senate 17-4.
Gibbons is chairman of the transportation board that approved pursuing stimulus money.
CORRECTION: This story was changed to reflect that the transportation board agreed to seek stimulus dollars for the project, instead of that it approved using stimulus dollars for the project. The Sun regrets the error. | (August 27, 2009)
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