Kingsbury Grade open after sinkhole repaired

Kingsbury Grade reopened Friday evening following repairs to an eroding drainage pipe underneath the roadway, according to the Nevada Department of Transportation.

The Carson Valley side of the road will temporarily close again in spring or summer for finishing roadway drainage repairs, spokeswoman Meg Ragonese said.

Over the past few weeks, a sinkhole formed where a drainage pipe crosses underneath the road at mile marker 4.3, approximately 10 miles up the road on the Carson Valley side. On Jan. 3, the state temporarily closed the road to ensure driver safety and make interim repairs. Q&D Construction, Inc. and Granite Construction made the roadway repairs.

“We want drivers to be able to get safely where they need to go,” NDOT District Engineer Thor Dyson explained. “We have reinforced the roadbed by filling in the eroded drainage area and repaving the roadway surface as an interim repair so that travelers can safely drive Kingsbury Grade this winter. As weather warms and dries out in coming months, we will install a permanent new drainage pipe.”

Kingsbury Grade will be closed in future months as final repairs are made. As weather will play a factor, no timeframe for the future repair-related closure is set, but the closure is anticipated to take place in the spring or early summer. Ragonese said they’ll announce the road closure and repairs through the media, on nevadadot.com and nvroads.com websites, as well as the 511 Nevada Travel Info phone number.

In 2014, NDOT reconstructed a different section of Kingsbury Grade, making improvements to roadway surface, drainage and curb and gutter. The current closure area is east of the reconstructed roadway, and not in the same area that was reconstructed. The state already has scheduled a project to invest approximately $5 million to enhance roadway drainage and erosion control on this lower section of Kingsbury Grade in 2019. The section of road is traveled by approximately 5,600 vehicles daily.