Commentary - October 6, 2024 - by Ray Hagar

Sparks Mayor Ed Lawson has safety concerns about his constituents.

Thousands of them commute from Sparks (and Reno) to work at one of the  Fortune 500 companies at the Tahoe-Reno Industrial Complex (TRI), just about 12 miles east of town in Storey County.

TRI is considered the economic engine of the Reno/Sparks area with companies such as Tesla, Switch, Google, Walmart and Panasonic. Yet the stretch of I-80 from Sparks to TRI has become dangerous.

You could call it "Dead Man's Curve," like the Jan & Dean song from the 1960s, but a curve isn't the issue. It's the traffic snarls, accidents that can shut down the road for hours, speeding by employees late for work and the fact that it's too little road for too much traffic.

"If you're not doing 85, you're getting run over," Lawson said recently on Nevada Newsmakers. "And it's pretty spooky to drive on I-80 in that commuter traffic. "

Accidents on I-80 between Sparks and TRI have doubled in the past three years, according to the Nevada Department of Transportation. Possible solutions for a safer roadway include widening the dangerous stretch of I-80, a commuter train for employees and a new road from South Meadows Parkway in South Reno to TRI.

Money is the issue with all plans. The widening of I-80, for example, has an estimated $500 million price tag. That's half of the money NDOT has in its annual budget for road building statewide, Lawson said, noting the Las Vegas area probably gets 70 percent of that.

So Lawson is trying "to think out of the box."

"We're just looking for loopholes and we're looking for ways to get things done," Lawson told host Sam Shad.

"The infrastructure needs to be taken care of to transport people out to Storey County," Lawson said. "Eighty percent of those folks who work out there live with us in Reno and Sparks and the only way to get out there at this time is I-80."

Lawson has landed on the idea of building a toll road on a 13-mile stretch from La Posada Drive in the Spanish Springs area of Northeast Sparks to TRI.

The toll, undetermined at this time, would help pay for the road designed for the safety of citizens, which apparently, the state can't afford.

But there's a rub: Toll roads are illegal in Nevada. So Lawson will be marching to the Legislature when it opens in February to see if he can get that changed. He's already got a team of lobbyists lined up, he said.

"I mean, that's a road that needs to get built," Lawson  said. "It's where the population lives in North Reno and North Sparks and just makes sense to do do that."

Lawson is facing opposition already. It's a Nevada thing. People don't want to pay to drive on a road. Roads should be free.

People have told Lawson, "Oh, we don't want a toll road. We don't want that," he said. "I had one lady email me and said, I don't want to have to pay a toll to take my kids to school.' Not sure where she takes her kids to school at, but you know, unless you drive on the road, you don't pay for it."

The companies at TRI that employ the Reno/Sparks workers may help with the costs, Lawson said. He estimates the cost of the 13-mile toll road would be about $500 million, although it may be too early to land on a credible number.

"So it's become a quality of life issue for their employees," Lawson said of the companies at TRI. "And they're actually looking to participate with us in the cost of doing the road alignment and some of the other expenses up front because of the the impact it's having on their business," Lawson said.

Lawson said he's willing to be the front man for the project, trying to change lawmakers' minds about a toll road.

"So you get the slings and arrows," he said about his leadership on the issue. "But I'm willing to take that. And I'm willing to be the one out there in front and pushing it."

The toll road may be the best of the solutions proposed, even with the widening of I-80, he said. He's suggested helping pay for the toll road by buying federal land near Sparks and using revenue from possible billboards and solar farms on it.

"What I mean is the road needs to happen, period," Lawson added. "At some point, you know, if you have an accident on I-80, it doesn't matter which side of the road it's on, it blocks up both sides of it. I've been there, done that. "

An alternative route through south Reno to Storey County has been seriously considered but may be too expensive, Lawson said.

"There's another road proposed right now that actually NDOT has funded the research on it," he said. "I think it was $2.5 million to do an alignment for the southern route.

"So (the road would be) coming from South Reno over to Storey County," Lawson continued. "The problem is it's a very expensive road because there's 21 bridges in it. So the guesses that I'm hearing is this a $1.2 billion to a $1.5 billion road."

However, much more traffic bound for TRI comes from the North Reno/Spanish Springs area than it does from South Reno, Lawson said.

"For the amount of traffic, does it (South Reno route) make sense? I don't know," Lawson said. "But we know that we're going to have the traffic on the northern road, and it makes sense to do the northern road first."

Lawson would like to see the northern road to TRI built before the I-80 expansion to give commuters an alternative to traveling through the I-80 construction zone.

"Once the widening of I-80 happens out in the canyon, it's going to be a nightmare," Lawson  said, referring to the inevitable problems with road construction on a busy Interstate carved out next to a steep mountainside.

Commuter trains seem to be an iffy proposal because the Union Pacific Railroad makes money moving freight, not people. The railway next to TRI is a logistics necessity for the companies there, vital for shipping goods in and out.

"They are the big dog in the house," Lawson said of Union Pacific. "They don't answer to senators or congressmen. They're their own people. And if they say they don't want to do it. They're not going to do it. "

Lawson later added: "They could put commuter trains on there tomorrow if the UP (Union Pacific) will agree to it."

NO MORE CASINOS: The Legends Bay Casino in Sparks, opened in 2022, is the first new casino property to be built in the Reno-Sparks area in 30 years. Lawson doesn't see any more casinos being built in Sparks anytime soon.

Major casinos currently in Sparks include the Nugget, Rail City, Baldini's, Western Village and Legends Bay. Sparks also has four or five Dotty's neighborhood gaming establishments.

"I wouldn't encourage any new casinos," Lawson said. "The pie is just so big. So if you add another casino in there, you're still splitting up the same pie. So I'd rather see the ones that are here existing to succeed and, you know,
get their gains on it."