Transpo Secretary Buttigieg Helps Mark Construction Start of $378M Vegas BRT Project
Photo courtesy Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada
Pete Buttigieg, U.S. secretary of transportation, joined a groundbreaking ceremony in Las Vegas Aug. 13, for the Maryland Parkway Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project. The $378-million effort by the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada (RTC) aims to improve safety and enhance functionality along one of the area's most important corridors.
"Thanks to President Biden, Vice President Harris and this Congressional delegation, we passed historic infrastructure funding that includes the biggest investment in public transit in U.S. history," says Buttigieg in an RTC press release. "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."
The project is funded in part by an almost $150-million federal grant from the Federal Transportation Administration, and runs from the South Strip Transit Terminal on Gillespie Street to the Las Vegas Medical District near downtown. It will expand transit service and enhance up to 50 transit shelters, with the development of seven miles of shared bus-bike lanes and widened sidewalks, signalized pedestrian crossings and advanced signal timing. The route will feature hydrogen fuel cell electric buses.
As ENR previously reported, plans by GCW Engineering Inc., Las Vegas, call for a 12.5-mile parkway corridor between the South Strip Transit Terminal and the Las Vegas Medical District. Maryland Parkway currently has three lanes in each direction plus a center left-turn lane. The project would reconfigure the road to have a shared bus and bicycle lane on the outside in both directions, and replace portions of the center lane with a median.
Officials recently awarded a $129.8-million contract to Las Vegas Paving Corp. for construction of the portion of the project within Las Vegas. Another contract covering work in Clark County was scheduled to be awarded.
Construction began in August in three parts of the corridor north of Sahara Avenue, with completion of the phased project anticipated by the end of 2026.
