BUDGET FALLOUT: Toll road plan OK'd / Lawmaker approval still needed to establish pilot project
Source: By BRENDAN RILEY, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS (NV), May 16, 2008
Traffic travels on U.S. 95 south from the Ann Road overpass Thursday. The Nevada Transportation Board endorsed a proposal to make lanes on part of U.S. 95 and Interstate 15 toll lanes with private financing paying for the project.
Photo by Craig L. Moran
CARSON CITY -- A proposal to allow for privatized toll lanes in Las Vegas as a way to help reduce a huge funding shortfall for Nevada highway projects was endorsed Thursday by the Nevada Transportation Board.
Gov. Jim Gibbons, the board chairman, joined with other panel members at the meeting to back the 19-mile demonstration project. Gibbons opposes higher taxes, but a spokesman said after the meeting that the voluntary freeway toll doesn't clash with his anti-tax philosophy.
The pilot project, which requires approval from the 2009 Legislature, would be on Nevada's busiest stretches of road: U.S. Highway 95 to Interstate 15, and I-15 south to Interstate 215.