U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, center, tours a section of Boulder Highway with, from left, Ed McGuire, Henderson director of public works, Rep. Susie Lee, D-Nev., and Kristina Swallow, director of the Nevada Department of Transportation, in Henderson Wednesday, Aug. 11, 2021. Henderson’s “Reimagine Boulder Highway” project received a nearly $40 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation.
Wednesday, Aug. 11, 2021 | 10:10 p.m.
U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg had only heard about Boulder Highway, the six-lane-wide thoroughfare deemed one of Nevada’s deadliest stretches of roads.
But flanked by Nevada officials Wednesday afternoon, Buttigieg got a small taste of what pedestrians encounter on the highway daily as the group made its way through a crosswalk near Corn Street in Henderson.
“Well, it’s one thing to hear about it,” said Buttigieg later during a media conference at Henderson City Hall. “It’s another to actually see it. And when you’re standing there, you see the distance between the crossings, you see how intimidating and dangerous the flow of traffic can be if you’re a pedestrian trying to get around.”
Buttigieg visited the valley to tout a nearly $40 million federal grant the federal Department of Transportation recently awarded to Henderson to reshape the highway from Russell Road to Greenway Road. The goal is to make the road more inclusive for walkers, bicyclists, and those who use wheelchairs.
The $39 million grant will help kickstart the project, which is estimated to cost about $130 million, and break ground in about 18 months, with a finish date projected by 2025.
The six-lane highway will be broken up into four car lanes and one bus and bike lane in each direction, said Robert Herr, Henderson’s chief infrastructure officer and assistant city manager. Stretches of sidewalk also will be widened and made continuous, and more lighting will be installed. The highway also will have better flood control.
The “Reimagine Boulder Highway” project is a collaboration that includes the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada, the Nevada Department of Transportation, Clark County, and the cities of Las Vegas and Henderson.
The urgency of the project was apparent in the grant application filed by Henderson, said Buttigieg, noting that the strategy could be a footprint for other U.S. jurisdictions, especially with funds from the bipartisan infrastructure bill that just was passed by the U.S. Senate.
“You sense the need for more economic support in that area of Henderson,” he said. “We need to do a better job as a country of supporting the communities that are trying to make roads safer.”
Boulder Highway, built in 1931, was the artery that connected Southern Nevada, then rural, to Arizona. Since then, more highways have been constructed, and there’s no need for such a wide road like Boulder Highway in urban Clark County.
“There was a time when the only thing we ever knew how to do to a road was widen it, and the only thing we thought that a car ever ought to do was go faster,” Buttigieg said. “Now we have a more balanced view of how things ought to work. Yes, efficiently getting people to where they need to be, but making it safe and creating a lot of options.”
Buttigieg noted that Rep. Susie Lee, D-Nev., who accompanied him in Henderson, was a strong advocate for the grant, along with the rest of Nevada’s congressional delegation.
“I reached out to the secretary after the city and NDOT had applied for the grant and just asked if they’d give them extra consideration, and here we are,” Lee said. “It’s great.”
This might not be the only project on the horizon.
The $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill, which passed this week in the U.S. Senate, would send Nevada $2.5 billion for bridges, $462 million for public transportation over five years, $100 million for the expansion of broadband internet and $38 million over five years to expand electric vehicle charging stations, Lee said.
The legislation — known as the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act — prioritizes enhancing the nation’s roads, bridges, highways, broadband infrastructure, clean transportation infrastructure and clean water infrastructure. And it’s much-needed here in Nevada, Lee said.
“Nevada is ground zero, we were most devastated by the pandemic, we’re one of the most affected states by climate change, but more importantly, we have the greatest economic opportunity with respect to the infrastructure package,” Lee said.
