Regional Boards > Pacific Southwest
Nevada
Urban Prairie Schooner:
I noticed in Nevada DOT's State Maintained Highways Description Index that SR 121 in Churchill County has been reclassified as a frontage road (FRCH08). Streetview as of August 2022 still shows signage for SR 121 at the southern terminus.
Does anyone have any insight as to why this was done? This is certainly not a frontage road.
roadfro:
--- Quote from: Urban Prairie Schooner on September 29, 2022, 11:04:17 PM ---I noticed in Nevada DOT's State Maintained Highways Description Index that SR 121 in Churchill County has been reclassified as a frontage road (FRCH08). Streetview as of August 2022 still shows signage for SR 121 at the southern terminus.
Does anyone have any insight as to why this was done? This is certainly not a frontage road.
--- End quote ---
I didn't even catch that change.
This is Dixie Valley Road, which leads to Dixie Valley. The maps in NDOT's SMH book show it as a "site", which typically denotes a former town site with little to no permanent population. If that's the case, and there's no other important uses served by the road (such as industrial sites, mines, military installations, state park, state prison, etc.), then I can see downgrading the route from a primary state highway. This keeps the route under state maintenance, but probably not at the funding and maintenance level of a state highway.
NDOT does not have a bunch of different route type classifications. Even the current state route numbering system adopted in 1976 was based on Federal Aid Highway system classifications and funding levels (100-400's as primary state highways, 500-600's as urban highways, 700-800's as state aid [kind of a defacto "secondary" tier]), but I don't think they've used that for funding purposes since roughly 1991. NDOT has a few other road classifications: FR (frontage road), SP (state park), CD (collector-distributor), AR (access road), RP (roads and parking lots serving rest parks), ER (escape ramps).
NDOT puts a lot of things that wouldn't typically be considered a "frontage road" into the FR category. For instance, many urban roads that interchange with a freeway are maintained as a FR within the NDOT ROW of the interchange area (especially if the intersecting road had once been a state-maintained highway)...examples include Keystone Ave at I-80 in Reno (FRWA55), Neil Road at I-580/US 395 in Reno (FRWA44, formerly SR 671), Spring Mountain Road at I-15 in Las Vegas (FRCL51, formerly SR 591), Sunset Road at I-515 in Las Vegas (FRCL63, formerly part of SR 562), etc. There are also some other frontage roads in Carson City that are not connected to the rest of the state highway system, but are part of roads adjacent to NDOT headquarters.
I'm not sure what NDOT's criteria are for some of the classifications, but it seems like many assets, including this downgrade of SR 121, might fit better in the AR category than FR...
Scott5114:
I'm really glad my first-ever entry into Nevada was on I-11 at sunset, because it made a hell of a first impression. Google Street View doesn't do it justice.
cl94:
--- Quote from: dbz77 on September 12, 2022, 06:38:09 PM ---
--- Quote from: roadfro on September 12, 2022, 05:16:10 PM ---
--- Quote from: cl94 on September 11, 2022, 11:54:06 PM ---
--- Quote from: roadfro on September 11, 2022, 07:21:43 PM ---That double-guy mast arm style is basically an endangered species in Nevada. Probably less than 10 of them left...
--- End quote ---
Now I'm trying to remember where I have seen them, because that number seems low. I could swear I've seen at least half a dozen around Reno/Sparks alone, but I very well might be counting some twice.
--- End quote ---
Make sure you're not confusing a curved mast arm for a double-guy curved mast arm. Curved mast arms (a la California) are still in plentiful abundance around Reno-Sparks (smaller example & larger example), but I can't think of any double-guy mast arms around here. The double-guy mast arms are very thin, and have the two guy wires strung from the mast that support the arm, and the mast arms themselves are only about a lane wide.
Here's some double-guy mast arm signals, all in the city of Las Vegas:
[*]Charleston Blvd, just west of Shadow Ln: Controls a crosswalk outside of University Medical Center (Vegas area's main hospital). Interesting because the road is 3 lanes in each direction with center turn, and there's only one overhead signal head, so it doesn't remotely meet modern NV signal standards.
[*]Alta Dr (WB) & Brush St (Used to have similar installation EB)
[*]Two of the three signals at Ogden Ave & 3rd St in downtown
[*]Three of the four signals at Maryland Pkwy & Oakey Blvd: Northbound also is 3 lanes with one overhead signal. This also has the also now rare post-mounted (5-section horizontal) left turn signal in a narrow median. (Also unusual, there's a fire hydrant in that median! :-o)
[/list]
So that's eight double-guys that I can think of, and I can't think of any outside of Vegas. So maybe "less than 10" is an exaggeration, but it's probably not that far off. There used to be a lot more of these double-guy around downtown Las Vegas, but several have been replaced in the last decade or so as the city/RTC have done street modifications and have been replaced with signal hardware that matches new street scape elements and conforms to more modern design standards.
Note also that the Las Vegas area still has many of these double-guy mounts in use for other purposes like school zone flashers, but I'm only counting actual traffic signals in my endangered species claim.
--- End quote ---
I also add Presidio and Highland. The street view is from January of 2021, though I can personally attest driving through there in March of 2022.
I am surprised it was ever installed, considering it is just an industrial neighborhood.
Another thing I wonder is if those double-guy curved mast arms are recycled for use in other intersections (either as temporary or permanent installations)
--- End quote ---
South Virginia Street at State/Court Streets has two as of last weekend. There's a third in front of Harvey's Lake Tahoe. Mast is in Nevada, but Caltrans maintains the signal. I could swear there are more, but again, could be mistaken.
roadfro:
--- Quote from: cl94 on October 25, 2022, 11:31:27 PM ---
--- Quote from: dbz77 on September 12, 2022, 06:38:09 PM ---
--- Quote from: roadfro on September 12, 2022, 05:16:10 PM ---
--- Quote from: cl94 on September 11, 2022, 11:54:06 PM ---
--- Quote from: roadfro on September 11, 2022, 07:21:43 PM ---That double-guy mast arm style is basically an endangered species in Nevada. Probably less than 10 of them left...
--- End quote ---
Now I'm trying to remember where I have seen them, because that number seems low. I could swear I've seen at least half a dozen around Reno/Sparks alone, but I very well might be counting some twice.
--- End quote ---
Make sure you're not confusing a curved mast arm for a double-guy curved mast arm. Curved mast arms (a la California) are still in plentiful abundance around Reno-Sparks (smaller example & larger example), but I can't think of any double-guy mast arms around here. The double-guy mast arms are very thin, and have the two guy wires strung from the mast that support the arm, and the mast arms themselves are only about a lane wide.
Here's some double-guy mast arm signals, all in the city of Las Vegas:
[*]Charleston Blvd, just west of Shadow Ln: Controls a crosswalk outside of University Medical Center (Vegas area's main hospital). Interesting because the road is 3 lanes in each direction with center turn, and there's only one overhead signal head, so it doesn't remotely meet modern NV signal standards.
[*]Alta Dr (WB) & Brush St (Used to have similar installation EB)
[*]Two of the three signals at Ogden Ave & 3rd St in downtown
[*]Three of the four signals at Maryland Pkwy & Oakey Blvd: Northbound also is 3 lanes with one overhead signal. This also has the also now rare post-mounted (5-section horizontal) left turn signal in a narrow median. (Also unusual, there's a fire hydrant in that median! :-o)
[/list]
So that's eight double-guys that I can think of, and I can't think of any outside of Vegas. So maybe "less than 10" is an exaggeration, but it's probably not that far off. There used to be a lot more of these double-guy around downtown Las Vegas, but several have been replaced in the last decade or so as the city/RTC have done street modifications and have been replaced with signal hardware that matches new street scape elements and conforms to more modern design standards.
Note also that the Las Vegas area still has many of these double-guy mounts in use for other purposes like school zone flashers, but I'm only counting actual traffic signals in my endangered species claim.
--- End quote ---
I also add Presidio and Highland. The street view is from January of 2021, though I can personally attest driving through there in March of 2022.
I am surprised it was ever installed, considering it is just an industrial neighborhood.
Another thing I wonder is if those double-guy curved mast arms are recycled for use in other intersections (either as temporary or permanent installations)
--- End quote ---
South Virginia Street at State/Court Streets has two as of last weekend. There's a third in front of Harvey's Lake Tahoe. Mast is in Nevada, but Caltrans maintains the signal. I could swear there are more, but again, could be mistaken.
--- End quote ---
Well I'll be, those two in Reno escaped my notice, and I pass through the regularly enough (although usually at night, when it's harder to notice).
I'm also curious if the signal at Tahoe is maintained by Nevada. NDOT went through a could years ago and put yellow reflective strips on all signal backplates located within state highway ROWs. I don't think California is nearly as proactive with that.
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