Secondary access to hospital will be completed on time

The secondary-access road to the 80-acre Carson Tahoe Regional Medical Center campus will be completed this week, in time for the Dec. 3 opening of the new hospital in North Carson City.

Paving on Silver Oak Drive, the 4,100-foot road that stretches from GS Richards Boulevard to Medical Parkway, will be completed today. The completion of this secondary access is required before the medical center can receive its final certificate of occupancy. In case of an accident or high traffic on North Carson Street, emergency medical vehicles would take West College Parkway, then GS Richards Boulevard north and connect to Silver Oak Drive.

"It's done enough for secondary access and adequate for emergency vehicles, but that doesn't mean it's open to public access," said Mike Stephenson, project manager with Palmer Engineering Group.

John Bird, project manager for Marv McQueary Excavating Inc., said the new road will be open to the public in a week to 10 days, pending approval from the city on the road striping. Road barriers will be put up at GS Richards Boulevard and Medical Parkway until the signs are up and the striping is completed.

Silver Oak Drive is expected to be extended about 300 feet east to North Carson Street, but that project must be cleared by the Nevada Department of Transportation.

This project was complicated by the number of land owners - three - and the short timeline for completion. Construction started in September. The first 684 feet of Silver Oak Drive off Medical Parkway is on land owned by the hospital, which took the lead in this project, Stephenson said.

The next 924 feet is owned by Silver Oak Development. Businessman Tom Brown owns a 824-foot section. Silver Oak owns the remaining 1,738 feet of land connecting the two-lane road to GS Richards Boulevard.

GS Richards Boulevard drops into a roundabout with access to the Silver Oak Golf Club clubhouse and then connects to College Parkway. The project cost about $2.5 million.

A traffic light at Medical Parkway and North Carson Street, the primary hospital access, was turned on Nov. 3.

n Contact reporter Becky Bosshart at bbosshart@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1212.