NDOT Is 2019 ENR Southwest Owner of the Year
The celebration for the opening of Interstate 11 near Las Vegas, Nev., in August. The project was a joint effort by the Nevada Department of Transportation and the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada. Photo courtesy Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada.
The Nevada Department of Transportation is the ENR Southwest Owner of the Year.
NDOT employs nearly 2,000 workers and manages an annual budget of more than $1 billion. Traffic has nearly tripled during the last 15 years thanks to robust population increases and tourist activity even after the start of the recession. As a result, roads were becoming congested throughout the state and especially in Las Vegas.
The beginning of widening older freeways and the expansion of Las Vegas’ The Strip freeway system over the past 20 years led the agency to winning ENR Southwest owner of the year in 2012.
Since that time, NDOT has actually rebuilt many Las Vegas freeways — capped off by the nearly complete Project Neon — while additionally completing the first new interstate highway (I-11) in decades in 2018.
Not just Las Vegas centric, NDOT is currently in preplanning for the re-imagining of Reno’s spaghetti bowl after 2020.
We will have more on the Nevada Department of Transportation in the March issue of ENR Southwest.