Nevada transportation officials in Carson City for feedback

The Nevada Department of Transportation is finishing up a road trip collecting feedback from the public about the state’s roads.

NDOT representatives will be at Comma Coffee in Carson City at 8 a.m. today and in Reno and Sparks later in the day, completing a series of open houses that started in Mesquite and continued in Caliente, Fallon, Winnemucca and other locations throughout the state.

Wednesday, an open house was held at the Community Center, where Tim Mueller, long-range planning, aviation and freight manager in NDOT’s planning division, talked about the agency’s One Nevada Transportation Plan.

The plan is designed to prioritize NDOT’s spending during the next 20 years.

“At the end of the day we only have so much money we can spend,” said Mueller. “We have limited funding.”

The department spends between $525 million-$750 million annually.

At each meeting, attendees were asked how they would spend an imaginary $100 million.

At the Community Center, five people took part, dropping their funny money into various designated spending pots.

So far, based on feedback, people want to see 31 percent of the money spent on maintenance and repair, 20 percent on reducing travel time and improving reliability, 18 percent on safety improvements, 17 percent on transportation system and economic expansion, and 14 percent on enhanced transportation choices.

NDOT is also collecting data through an online survey, which Mueller said 1,700 people have so far filled out.

The survey, which asks 11 questions, can be found at onenvplan.woodpolls.com.

Mueller said NDOT has nearly completed phase 1 of the plan, which is called visioning, and is halfway through the second phase, outlining trends and research. The third and final phase is performance planning.

NDOT must complete the plan as a requirement to receive federal funding.

More information on the plan is available at onenvplan.com.