Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg joined Nevada elected officials to break ground Monday on a $378 million dollar construction project designed to create more efficient, frequent, and speedier bus transit on one of the busiest corridors in Southern Nevada.
Earlier this year, Clark County was awarded nearly $150 million in federal funding for the 13-mile Maryland Parkway Bus Rapid Transit project between the Harry Reid International Airport and the Las Vegas Medical District in the north.
On Monday, Buttigieg joined the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada (RTC) and members of Nevada’s congressional delegation — including U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, U.S. Reps. Dina Titus, Susie Lee and Steven Horsford — at the Boulevard Mall to mark the beginning of construction.
The project will expand transit service, reduce wait times for transit riders on Maryland Parkway, enhance transit shelters, and create wider sidewalks and pedestrian crossings.
Maryland Parkway is home to about 63,000 residents, and is one of the busiest corridors in Las Vegas, carrying nearly 35,000 vehicles and 9,000 transit riders daily, according to the RTC, which estimates about 32% of all households on the corridor don’t have access to a personal vehicle.
“It’s especially important to us to continue investing in places with different levels of economic investment, especially those that have been overburdened and underserved in the past,” Buttigieg said Monday.
RTC rendering of design for Maryland Parkway with combined bus/bike lanes.
The upgraded bus route will be accompanied by the launch of 15 hydrogen fuel cell electric buses along Maryland Parkway, making for less polluting and quieter buses. The project will also create 42 new and enhanced transit shelters that will provide more shade. And the route will include seven miles of dedicated shared bus-bike lanes.
Construction on the bus transit project is scheduled be completed in phases by the end 2026. The project is expected to create traffic impacts on Maryland Parkway from Sahara Avenue to Oakey Boulevard throughout its construction.
The project is expected to create 1,100 new jobs and $33 million in contracts for 18 local and small businesses.
Buttigieg praised the White House and Congress for passing the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act in 2022, which included the biggest investment in public transit in U.S. history.
“We are saving people money. We are saving people time. We are better connecting this community,” Buttigieg said. “This is how government is supposed to work. I’m not saying it always does, but when it does, it’s remarkable. Listening to people, hearing what they need and working hard to deliver.”
The last time Buttigieg visited Nevada was to break ground for the Brightline West High-Speed Intercity Passenger Rail System to connect Las Vegas to Southern California by train for the first time in more than 50 years. The rail line benefits from $6.5 billion in federal grants and financing, much of that provided by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act.
The 218-mile all electric high-speed rail system will take passengers between Las Vegas and Rancho Cucamonga, California in just over two hours – nearly twice as fast as driving. The route is projected to serve more than 11 million passengers annually, taking millions of cars off Interstate 15.
“We’re using that funding package to improve roads in Las Vegas, we’ve started work on America’s first high-speed rail line between Las Vegas and Southern California, and today we begin construction on a new rapid bus route that will give residents a faster, more reliable, more comfortable trip between the airport, UNLV, downtown Las Vegas, and the Medical District,” Buttigieg said.
While Nevada has received a large chunk of federal funding for both projects, urban mass transit has received a fraction of the funding provided for the public-private partnership fueling the Brightline high-speed rail.
The bus project was selected after RTC commissioners in 2019 rejected a proposal to build a light rail line on the Maryland corridor, citing light rail’s billion-dollar price tag.
Transit officials say the hope is that the Brightline high-speed rail will alleviate traffic congestion on the I-15 and eliminate some of the pressure to widen the interstate between California and Nevada.
“Whether you’re expecting to be on the train or not, you’re going to benefit when it’s running, because there’s going to be less congestion. We need to make sure we’re investing in an all-of-the-above strategy in this country. That means our aviation systems, our rail systems, our roads and highways, which also need a lot of work and public transport like what we’re celebrating today. You can’t just pick one and only do that, we really need to help all these systems work together,” Buttigeg said.
The Brightline high-speed rail is also projected to employ 10,000 workers during the construction of the high-speed rail line, and about 1,000 permanent full-time employees once the train is running.
Cortez Masto highlighted her work on the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, which has jurisdiction over the U.S. Department of Transportation’s federal transit programs. The Nevada senator said she has prioritized funding for transportation projects in Nevada during her time on the committee.
“It is important that we continue to recognize this is a major corridor, and it needs to be rejuvenated. This is where people come together for work, for social gatherings, for jobs, you name it. That’s why we have to continue to invest in our communities like right here at Maryland Parkway,” Cortez Masto said.
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Publish date : 2024-08-13 01:31:00
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