Henderson street set for $5M project including repaving, bike lanes and more

A $5 million improvement project on Carnegie Street in the Green Valley Ranch area of Henderson is going to create a smoother ride for motorists and increase safety on the small but important local road.

Carnegie runs north-south between Green Valley Parkway and Paseo Verde Parkway and serves as a secondary road for those looking to skip driving on Green Valley or St. Rose parkways to access Lee’s Family Forum, Green Valley Ranch Resort and two shopping centers. The road has deteriorated over the years — in some portions, you might think you were off-roading.

The project began May 26 and will take about a year to complete. The work includes milling and repaving the entire stretch of Carnegie, rebuilding ramps along the stretch to make them more pedestrian-friendly and in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. The project will also update pavement markings and remove and replace medians along the stretch, according to city of Henderson project engineer Kevie Remynse.

Safety upgrades

Safety upgrades are also part of the project, with plans to convert the four-way stop on Carnegie at Cozy Hill Circle near Miller Middle School to a signalized intersection.

“We felt like that area warranted a traffic signal,” Remynse said. “So when you’re doing design, essentially you look for incidents of accidents, that type of stuff. There’s a list of nine wants. And if you have two or three of those met, then that intersection would warrant a traffic signal. And we found that this intersection did warrant a traffic signal.”

The flashing beacons on a crosswalk just south of Paseo Verde that links the popular walking trail and serves as one of the ways students cross to and from school at Miller on school days will be upgraded with LED lights.

“That one’s going to be an LED and when we do projects like that, we like to do those types of enhancements,” Remynse said. “We know there’s a lot of walkability in the area, especially on trails.”

The project will also add buffered bike lanes on both sides of the road to help improve cyclists’ safety, since the road is a popular route for bike enthusiasts.

“We’ll have our bike lane throughout the project,” Remynse said. “There’s a state law that cars passing a bike are supposed to maintain a 3-foot (space). So there is a buffer zone between the vehicular roadway edge line and the edge line for the bike lane. What that looks like is two lines running parallel on the roadway with hash marks going through it to indicate that cars should not be in that area.”

No parking

The city will also add no-parking signs on a curved portion of Carnegie near the Mexican restaurant Lindo Michoacan just south of Horizon Ridge Parkway. Vehicles parking on the side of the road there create a safety hazard for vehicles coming into a blind turn when they are heading south on Carnegie, and the far-right lane is condensed when cars are parked on the side of the road.

“It’ll give better sight visibility for the roadway users as they’re going through there,” Remynse said. “That was also in relation to some of the community feedback that we received in this area.”

Timeline

The work occurring now is focused on Carnegie between Horizon Ridge and Paseo Verde, with the goal of finishing that section before the start of school on Aug. 10.

“We know the schools add a lot of volume to the area,” Remynse said. “Currently they’re working on removal and replacement of some of the ramps. They’re putting in that ITS conduit. They’re working on the traffic signal at Cozy Hill and once they get those items completed underground, all that, they’ll start going through and working on median removal and then milling of the roadway surface in preparation for paving.”

Work will then move to Carnegie between Horizon Ridge and Green Valley parkways, with most of the same improvements occurring on the southern portion of the project. The entire project should wrap up by next spring.

“We’re just really excited to get this roadway done for the residents in the area and put in some additional safety measures to help out the community in the Green Valley area,” Remynse said.