Nevada

[moabdave]

Some pics of my latest road trip. The intent was to clinch the remainder of NV-8A. I've done most of it, but not all. I didn't make it that far. I had a late start and was so enchanted with Gerlach. But of note. Pictures of Nevada's Newest Route. Washoe Tribe Route 35. I suspect NDOT handled the signage as this is the best signed tribal route I've ever seen. That dirt road is NV-34. Also the crappy video is me on I-80 at the site of the train derailment 2 days ago. As is visible the trains are moving again, but backedup like crazy. It was bumper to bumper trains all the way. What amazed me most is all the floodlights brought in so they could work night and day on the cleanup. https://www.flickr.com/photos/moabdave/albums/72177720332793800

[Max Rockatansky]

I had to burn a vacation day due to my garage door breaking last night.  I started working on the history of Nevada State Route 342 and the Dayton Toll Road while my garage was being repaired:

-  The Dayton Toll Road was constructed shortly after the Comstock Lode was struck in 1859.  The toll road passed through Gold Canyon, Silver City, Devil's Gate and Gold Hill before terminating in Virginia City.
-  The portion of the Dayton Toll Road north of the bottom of the Occidental Grade was added as part of Nevada State Route 17 during the 1925-1926 biennial period.
-  The Nevada Department of Highways would attempt to locate a new alignment for NV 17 south of Virginia City during the 1934-1936 biennial period.  Ultimately, they settled for using the Occidental Grade as the new alignment.  The upper portion of the Dayton Toll Road was dropped from the State Highway System but the lower portion to Dayton was added as the original NV 51.
-  The upper portion of the Dayton Toll Road was added back into the State Highway System as NV 80 at some point between 1942-1943.  There was a crap load of other additions during that time period which appear to be part of some overall mapping project the Department of Highways was commissioned to conduct.
-  The lower portion of the Dayton Toll Road was renumbered in 1964 to NV 93.  The purpose of this renumbering was due to parts of NV 11, 11A and 43 being renumbered as the second NV 51.  The second NV 51 acted as extension of ID 51 towards Elko.
-  NV 93 was dropped as part of the 1976 Renumbering and the upper portion became NV 342.  NV 93 appears to have never been paved when it was a numbered highway.  I'm unclear how accessible NV 93 is nowadays beyond Dayton Cemetery.  Google Maps doesn't have the lower Dayton Toll Road in the correct location near Dayton.

[Max Rockatansky]

I found this article to be incredibly useful while writing a Six Mile Canyon Road blog for Gribblenation:

https://www.nevadaappeal.com/news/2006/jun/11/all-toll-roads-led-to-the-comstock-almost/

The article was written in 2006 when Storey County was considering tolling Six Mile Canyon Road.  The irony is that Six Mile Canyon seemingly was the only roadway to Virginia City that has never been a toll corridor.  I'm to understand the corridor was considered for inclusion into the State Highway System three times during the 1990s. 

More interesting on a statewide scale is that the article has a list of franchise toll rights granted between 1861-1864.

[pderocco]

I found this article to be incredibly useful while writing a Six Mile Canyon Road blog for Gribblenation:

https://www.nevadaappeal.com/news/2006/jun/11/all-toll-roads-led-to-the-comstock-almost/

The article was written in 2006 when Storey County was considering tolling Six Mile Canyon Road.  The irony is that Six Mile Canyon seemingly was the only roadway to Virginia City that has never been a toll corridor.

A hope they came to their senses, and realized hardly anyone would pay much of a toll. It's a fairly nice ride (did it a couple years ago), but it's not that much of a detour to take 341/342.

[Max Rockatansky]

I found this article to be incredibly useful while writing a Six Mile Canyon Road blog for Gribblenation:

https://www.nevadaappeal.com/news/2006/jun/11/all-toll-roads-led-to-the-comstock-almost/

The article was written in 2006 when Storey County was considering tolling Six Mile Canyon Road.  The irony is that Six Mile Canyon seemingly was the only roadway to Virginia City that has never been a toll corridor.

A hope they came to their senses, and realized hardly anyone would pay much of a toll. It's a fairly nice ride (did it a couple years ago), but it's not that much of a detour to take 341/342.

I honestly had forgotten it was even proposed.  I think it is about as dead as can be. 

[moabdave]

Picture of Nevada's newest named mountain pass. This is the high point along I-580. It was unnamed for the first decade of I-580's existence, but the Nevada state legislature apparently decided it must be named. The high point of the old alignment of US 395 was an actual mountain pass, named Washoe Hill Summit; this is it's functional replacement.



[Copied image over to imgur—Discord links expire after a few days. -S.]

[Max Rockatansky]

I did some digging on NV 118 yesterday afternoon.  The highway first appears on State Highway maps along Wildes Road as NV 62 in 1940.  I found that particularly odd since NAS Fallon wasn't designated until 1942.  At the time Wildes Road ended at the A Line Canal which seems like a strange terminus.  A Line Canal does channel water from Sweetwater Slough, so there might be something to that. 

After the NAS was built there was a radar station located as the end of Wildes Road about a quarter mile east of the terminus of NV 62.  Wildes Road was later extended to the modern alignment of US 50 by Churchill County.  For whatever reason NV 118 has never been extended eastward to US 50 and more or just ends still at A Line Canal. 

[moabdave]

I did some digging on NV 118 yesterday afternoon.  The highway first appears on State Highway maps along Wildes Road as NV 62 in 1940.  I found that particularly odd since NAS Fallon wasn't designated until 1942.  At the time Wildes Road ended at the A Line Canal which seems like a strange terminus.  A Line Canal does channel water from Sweetwater Slough, so there might be something to that. 

After the NAS was built there was a radar station located as the end of Wildes Road about a quarter mile east of the terminus of NV 62.  Wildes Road was later extended to the modern alignment of US 50 by Churchill County.  For whatever reason NV 118 has never been extended eastward to US 50 and more or just ends still at A Line Canal. 

To me all that jumble of state routes in Fallon would be "Farm to Market" roads if Nevada had them.

[Max Rockatansky]

I did some digging on NV 118 yesterday afternoon.  The highway first appears on State Highway maps along Wildes Road as NV 62 in 1940.  I found that particularly odd since NAS Fallon wasn't designated until 1942.  At the time Wildes Road ended at the A Line Canal which seems like a strange terminus.  A Line Canal does channel water from Sweetwater Slough, so there might be something to that. 

After the NAS was built there was a radar station located as the end of Wildes Road about a quarter mile east of the terminus of NV 62.  Wildes Road was later extended to the modern alignment of US 50 by Churchill County.  For whatever reason NV 118 has never been extended eastward to US 50 and more or just ends still at A Line Canal. 

To me all that jumble of state routes in Fallon would be "Farm to Market" roads if Nevada had them.

I also found another reference to "farm-to-market road" in the 1923-1924 Oregon Highway Commission biennial last night.  Must've have been once upon a time been a far more widely accepted classification for a road.

[kphoger]

The term is historically just a normal way of describing a minor road into town that's all-weather maintained.  Texas ran away with the term by having special route shields and everything, but it's far from being the only state that has used the term more generally.

For example, in Missouri:

Title XIV — Roads and Waterways

Chapter 230 — County Highway Commissions

§ 230.250 — County highway commission may designate certain roads as part of supplemental state highway system — state highways and transportation commission to approve.

Any county adopting sections 230.200 to 230.260 may, through their county highway commission, designate not less than twenty-five miles nor more than fifty miles of roads within the county which are connecting roads between present supplementary farm to market state highways. Upon designation and approval by the state highways and transportation commission, these roads shall become a part of the permanent supplementary state highway system.

Or, peruse the Iowa DOT's Statewide Farm-to-Market map.  (Zoom in, and they're the black lines.)

[Scott5114]

Oklahoma had farm-to-market roads complete with "FM" diamond shields on the map back in the day. As far as I know, they never had numbers, though.

@kphoger Is that law referring to the lettered routes as "farm to market state highways"?

[Max Rockatansky]

I think that I would've spotted the early California Division Highways using the term.  Now I'm wondering if Arizona was also using it and I just missed it in early texts.

[kphoger]

@kphoger Is that law referring to the lettered routes as "farm to market state highways"?

"Farm to market" is one type of road—easily the most common type—that is fitting to designate as a supplementary state highway, which is what Missouri officially calls its lettered routes.  But state lettered routes aren't the only type of road that can be a "farm to market" road.  For example, in another statute ...

Title XIV — Roads and Waterways

Chapter 230 — County Highway Commissions

§ 230.030 — Power and duties of the county highway commission.

It shall be the duty of the county highway commission and said commission shall have the power to locate, lay out, designate, construct and maintain, subject to approval of the state highways and transportation commission, a system of county highways not exceeding in the aggregate at any given time one hundred miles in any county, by connecting by the most practical route the several centers of population in the county, in such manner as to afford a connection with such of said centers of population as are not now located on any state highway with such state highway, and so as to afford, as nearly as may be done, a connection with county highways connecting the centers of population of adjoining counties, to the end that all parts of the county shall be connected with the state highway system as now laid out and designated, and that the inhabitants of the county generally shall have and enjoy a system of highly improved farm-to-market roads.  If any part of this county one hundred mile highway system has been, or shall hereafter be taken over by the state highways and transportation commission and become a state highway, then an equal amount of new mileage, to take the place thereof, may be placed in the county one hundred mile system.

... it is stipulated that a given county's residents "shall have and enjoy a system of highly improved farm-to-market roads" within the context of county highways specifically, and then it goes on to outline what should happen if any of those farm-to-market roads become state highways.

[kphoger]

Furthermore, in Missouri (because I know everyone's reading this thread to learn obscure details about Missouri's minor roads), here are the requirements for someone to be appointed as a county highway commission member:

— have attained the age of twenty-five years

— a bona fide resident of county wherein appointed

— possessed of a knowledge of the interest of said county

— a known supporter and advocate of a system of county highways, constructed and maintained with a view to affording the greatest convenience to the greatest number of inhabitants of the county in the matter of farm-to-market roads

[Title XIV — § 230.020 County highway commission – appointment]

[kphoger]

At any rate, according to Nevada state law, one of the duties of the state highway department is the construction and maintenance of farm-to-market roads:

Title 35 — Highways;  Roads;  Bridges;  Parks;  Outdoor Recreation

Chapter 408 — Highways, Roads and Transportation Facilities

Financing Highways and Roads

§ 408.255 — Federal acts:  Secondary and feeder highways;  contracts;  pledge to match federal money

1.  The Department is authorized:

  (a)  To enter into all contracts and agreements with the United States Government relating to the engineering, planning, surveying, preparing of plans, acquiring of property, constructing and maintaining of secondary and feeder highways and roads.

  (b)  To submit such schemes, plans and programs of construction and maintenance as may be required by the Secretary of Commerce and the Federal Highway Administrator.

  (c)  To do all other things necessary to carry out the cooperation and programs contemplated and provided for by such federal acts in the construction and maintenance of such secondary and feeder highways and roads, including farm-to-market, mine-to-market, rural free delivery, public school bus and other rural roads.

2.  For the engineering, planning, constructing and improving of such secondary and feeder highways and roads under the Acts of Congress described in NRS 408.245, the good faith of the State is hereby pledged to make available funds sufficient to match, in the proportion designated in such acts, the sums of money apportioned to the State by or under the United States Government and to maintain at its own expense the highways and roads so constructed with the aid of funds so designated and make adequate provisions for carrying out such maintenance.

(Added to NRS by 1957, 671;  A 1965, 1075)

[Scott5114]

... it is stipulated that a given county's residents "shall have and enjoy a system of highly improved farm-to-market roads" within the context of county highways specifically, and then it goes on to outline what should happen if any of those farm-to-market roads become state highways.

What penalty does Missouri law provide for if a given county's residents find their farm-to-market roads thoroughly unenjoyable?

[Max Rockatansky]

Finally got around to breaking down the alignment history of the US Routes in Fallon on Gribblenation tonight.  This turned out to be way more complex than I think anyone could have predicted.  Here are my abridge notes.

- The initial alignment of the Lincoln Highway circa 1913-1914 through Fallon heading westbound was Berney Road, Perimeter Road, a no longer existing east/west road through Naval Air Station Fallon, Union Lane, Testolin Road, Drumm Lane, Harrigan Road, Stillwater Avenue, East Street, Center Street, Maine Street, Williams Avenue and Auction Road towards a no longer existing bridge at the Carson River.
-  NV 2 and the NV Department of Highways are both commissioned in 1917.
-  The Lincoln Highway is realigned over the Stillwater Mountains to Stillwater to avoid Fallon Sink during the 1917-1918 Biennium.  The Lincoln Highway is realigned to follow Stillwater Road and Stillwater Avenue west from Stillwater into Fallon.
-  During the 1919-1920 biennium a new Carson River Bridge was constructed along the Southern Pacific Railroad as an extension of Williams Avenue.  The Lincoln Highway is realigned west of downtown Fallon onto the new bridge.
-  The Lincoln Highway Association provides supplemental funding to the Nevada Department of Highways to construct a new alignment of NV 2 over Fallon Sink (Four Mile and Eight Mile Flats).  This new alignment is complete by 1922.  The Lincoln Highway is realigned heading west onto Berney Road and Harrigan Road towards Stillwater Avenue in Fallon.
-  During the 1923-1924 Biennium the Lincoln Highway in downtown Fallon is paved in Portland Cement.  The first reference to NV 1A between Fanning siding and Schurz is referenced. 
-  US Route 50 is commissioned along with the rest of the US Route System during November 1926.  US 50 absorbs the Lincoln Highway alignment in Fallon.
-  NV 1A between Schurz and Fallon is completed following allocations from the state earmarked in 1931. NV 1A enters downtown Fallon via Schurz Highway and Maine Street.
-  During July 1939 US Route 95 is extended through Nevada to Blythe, California.  US 95 was intended to use all of NV 1A but the segment north of downtown Fallon wasn't constructed to state standards.  US 95 uses a detour routing to Fernley and multiplexes US 50 eastward to Maine Street in Fallon.
-  In 1955 mainline US 50 is shifted to a multiplex of US 95/NV 1A south on Maine Street and Schurz Highway to Berney Road.  A US 50A is created following the original highway corridor via Harrigan Road but no formal request was submitted to AASHO.
-  The military pays for a realignment of US 50 around NAS Fallon which was complete by 1959.  US 50 consumes part of NV 42, and a section of Stillwater Road is bisected.  US 50A is eliminated due to Berney Road no longer passing through the extended NAS Fallon.  US 95 north of downtown Fallon is realigned onto the then newly completed segment of NV 1A.  US 95 is realigned off of Maine Street and onto Taylor Street which provides better continuity with Schurz Highway.  None of these US Route changes were submitted to AASHO for approval.
-  Harrigan Road and Berney Road are retained as unnumbered State Highways.  Harrigan Road becomes NV 115 whereas Berney Road becomes NV 119 during the 1976 State Highway Renumbering.

[kphoger]

What penalty does Missouri law provide for if a given county's residents find their farm-to-market roads thoroughly unenjoyable?

Each resident then owes the county courthouse $15, plus a four-page essay about the history of highways in Missouri.

[gonealookin]

A "Throwback Thursday" post from NDOT, showing damage to US 50 from the December 1954 earthquake centered east of Fallon.

NDOT Twitter post with photos

That was the largest earthquake to hit Nevada in the last 100 years or so.  An earthquake in 2020 caused some damage to US 95 near Mina.

This is the approximate location of the wide-shot photo in the NDOT post:  https://maps.app.goo.gl/1YMVc1wtMgVDgYc97

[Max Rockatansky]

It was never stated in the biennials but that was probably why the US Routes were pushed off Maine Street in downtown Fallon.  Most of those buildings ended up getting repaired in 1955.

[Max Rockatansky]

I worked on a US 91 history blog for the Bunkerville and Mesquite area today.  Here is the cliff-notes version of what I found:

-  The Arrowhead Trail was adopted via 1919 legislation as NV 6. 
-  A major realignment of the Arrowhead Trail between Las Vegas and Bunkerville was surveyed in the 1919-1920 biennium.  This survey was intended to find a way to bypass the original alignment of the highway through St. Thomas and Valley of Fire.  I'm unclear when the original upper Virgin River Bridge was completed.
-  The original lower Virgin River Bridge (a steel truss) south of Bunkerville was constructed during the 1923-1924 biennium.  This was a key component in creating a bypass of Valley of Fire.
-  The new alignment of NV 6 over Apex Summit to Bunkerville was completed during the 1925-1926 biennium.  This alignment was inherited by US 91 by November 1926.  US 91 through Bunkerville/Mesquite originally followed Riverside Road, Mesquite Boulevard, Sandhill Boulevard and Hillside Drive.
-  The upper Virgin River Bridge near Mesquite was surveyed for replacement during the 1929-1930 biennium.  This wooden structure wasn't treated like the lower Virgin River Bridge and was rotting away. 
-  The upper Virgin River Bridge was replaced by February 1932 with a concrete span.  The lower Virgin River Bridge was destroyed by floods the same month but was patch repaired via a temporary wooden trestle.
-  The lower Virgin River Bridge was replaced with a concrete span during the 1933-1934 biennium.
-  The last surfaced segment of US 91 in Nevada was paved between Bunkerville and Mesquite during the 1933-1934 biennium.
-  US 91 was relocated north of the Virgin entirely during 1954.  The then new alignment bypassed Bunkerville and two Virgin River crossings on Riverside Road.  The relocated US 91 entered Mesquite via Mesquite Boulevard.
-  The last segment of I-15 in Nevada was completed in Mesquite during 1973.  The corridor originated two miles west of Mesquite and extended to the Arizona state line.
-  US 91 is truncated from Baker, California to Brigham City, Utah in 1974.
-  Riverside Road is assigned as NV 170 in 1976.
-  The lower Virgin River Bridge was replaced in 2007 whereas the upper span was replaced in 2009.
   

[moabdave]

Looks like I-80 through west Reno is getting a makeover. My sympathies to those who have to drive it in rush hour https://www.nnbw.com/news/2026/may/06/i-80-bridge-overhaul-in-west-reno-to-shift-traffic-patterns/

[cl94]

You say that like 80 on the west side of town hasn't been a mess for a while now. Only the location changes. After these bridge replacements are done, 80 on the east side of town will be a mess for several years as they widen through Sparks and the canyon and replace the Nugget Viaduct.

I will note that, while this does not include a widening, it does include provisions for a widening expected a decade or so down the road. Long-range plans have 80 being 6-laned to Verdi, though I do not expect that to happen until the various widenings in Sparks and east are complete.

[Voyager]

It will never not be weird to me that Nevada has an Interstate 580.