COUNTY SEEKS NDOT’S ASSISTANCE TO ADDRESS SAFETY ON HIGHWAY 50

Lyon County has sent a request to the Director of NDOT to begin discussions on solutions to reducing the traffic crashes on Highway 50 throughout Central Lyon County. Lyon County has seen a number of fatal and serious injury accidents throughout the Highway 50 corridor from the Carson City line to the Churchill County line in the past several years. The most current being a double fatality accident in Dayton yesterday, August 25, 2021, evening.

Commissioner Ken Gray requested, at today’s (August 26, 2021) Board of Health Meeting that staff request NDOT to provide the Board of Health with traffic collision data for the next Board of Health meeting. County Manager Jeff Page explained that Commissioner Gray had also contacted him and requested a meeting with NDOT to determine solutions to reducing the collisions and carnage caused by them.

The Dayton area has experienced a 17.7% increase in population since 2010 and a significant increase in traffic since the USA Parkway has opened. Lyon County reports that there are several local roads that intersect with Highway 50 and during peak traffic hours making a left-hand turn is extremely difficult. NDOT has been receptive to working with the County on these issues including the installation of a stoplight at Highway 50 and Fortune. Page believes that there are a variety of solutions that can be discussed. He explained that many have complained about Highway 50 but have also voiced concerns about Highway 50 becoming similar to the Minden Gardnerville area and traffic moving as if it were a surface street and not a highway.

A significant portion of the people that live in the Highway 50 Corridor commute to Carson, Reno, Tahoe-Reno Industrial Park (TRI), or Fallon on a daily basis, and Highway 50 is the main route to TRI for residents in Carson, Douglas, Lyon, and parts of Storey County. Page is hopeful that solutions can be developed soon and implemented as quickly as possible to address the safety of the traveling public.