Artist to bring fresh look to interchange

A long-awaited U.S. 395 interchange at Meadowwood Drive won't look like typical highway construction in the Truckee Meadows.

Artist Vicki Scuri, owner of Siteworks of Lake Forest Park in Washington State, has been contracted to add aesthetic treatments to the interchange project, which will break ground in June or July.

Siteworks, with a portfolio of transportation art across the county, has designed light towers for the Meadowood underpass structure, and retaining walls will have a concrete fa ade with relief patterns in a fossil and crystalline pattern.

Scuri says Siteworks will make a reusable custom liner for the front face of concrete forms for the retaining walls. Her inspiration for the pattern came from Nevada's geology and the history of the Great Basin.

"The geology is just outstanding," Scuri says. "It is really different and interesting and primordial, so we decided to reference that.

"How do you capture something timeless and put it out there in an infrastructure? That is kind of a challenge," Scuri adds.

Michele Dennis, project manager for the Regional Transportation Commission, says the Meadowwood project and widening of Highway 395 just north of the new interchange are forerunners of newer aesthetical and landscaping treatments that will be incorporated in regional improvement work.

Meadow Valley Contractors of Las Vegas is the apparent low bidder for the project at $21.8 million, says Scott Magruder, spokesman for the Nevada Department of Transportation.

Four other companies submitted bids for the interchange project, including:

* Q&D Construction, $22.2 million

* Road and Highway Builders, $23 million

* Granite Construction Company/MCM Construction joint

venture, $24 million

* Sierra Nevada Construction/CC Meyers joint venture, $26.8

million

The project is entirely funded from Washoe County's $26 million share of the $201 million in federal stimulus funds approved for Nevada under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

NDOT will take several weeks before it officially awards the contract, Magruder says.

The job is expected to take 350 working days and employ more than 100. Magruder says the impact on motorists should be minimal.

"There shouldn't be a lot of problems with delays and traffic concerns. I think it will be a pretty good project and not cause a lot of headaches to motorists."

The gist of the project:

* Adding an off-ramp on southbound U.S.

395 just after the South Virginia

Street/Kietzke Lane exit

* Adding a northbound on-ramp at

Meadowwood Drive by Best Buy and

the JC Penney Home Store.

* Extending Meadowwood Drive under

the freeway to exit at Kietzke Lane near

Lowe's and PF Chang's China Bistro.

The extention of Meadowwood Drive gives motorists another east-west access route in one of the most heavily congested areas of town.

"It gives a lot better circulation on regional surface networks, and we will all be happy with that," RTC's Dennis says.

No businesses will have to be relocated to complete the work, NDOT's Macgruder says. Dennis notes that as work progresses, especially toward the holiday shopping season, construction crews will focus on keeping good access to surrounding commercial and retail developments.

The project is entirely funded from Washoe County's $26 million share of the $201 million in federal stimulus funds approved for Nevada under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.