September 9, 2014
Washington, D.C. - Today Congresswoman Dina Titus of Nevada’s First Congressional District, and a member of the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee, announced that the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada (RTCSNV) was awarded $13.3 million dollars for improvements to the Flamingo Road Corridor. The grant was awarded as part of the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) program. The funding will be used to implement improvements to a bus rapid transit route along a 14-mile segment of Flamingo Road. This project will include transit station enhancements, shared transit and bike lanes, pedestrian infrastructure improvements, pavement improvements, and transit signal prioritization. The corridor’s existing transit line serves more than 12,000 passengers per day, making it the single most frequented bus route between the Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area and the Resort Corridor.
“Flamingo Road is at the heart of the Valley, connecting residential communities and key employment areas near and within the Resort Corridor. This grant provides critical funds to improve this essential transit route and enhance the convenience, efficiency, and reliability of our overall transit system,” said Dina Titus. “This exciting project will not only improve the safety of the roadway for all users, while reducing congestion, it will also spur economic growth and create new jobs.”
“The Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada (RTC) is excited to hear that we’ve been awarded TIGER Grant funding for the Flamingo Road Corridor Improvements Project,” said Tina Quigley, RTC general manager. “Flamingo Road is one of the busiest roadways in the valley, carrying as many as 90,000 vehicles each day. Improvements will include dedicated transit lanes, pedestrian improvements and more than 85 new transit shelters enhancing safety, mobility and quality of life for our community.”
In April of this year, Congresswoman Titus wrote to U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx urging funding for this vital project. Below is the text of that letter:
April 13, 2014
Dear Secretary Foxx:
As the Member of Congress representing Nevada’s First District, I strongly support the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada (RTC) and its 2014 TIGER Application for the Flamingo Corridor Improvements Project. The project will provide an enhanced transit route along Flamingo Road, connecting residential communities and key employment areas near and within the Resort Corridor (the Las Vegas Strip).
The tourism industry supports approximately 382,800 jobs in Southern Nevada, which represents 48 percent of the total regional workforce. The ability to move more than 2 million residents and nearly 40 million annual visitors is critical to the economic health of the area and the State of Nevada. Unemployment, especially within the construction industry, remains elevated in Southern Nevada. This project affords both short and long-term benefits by providing more than 400 immediate private-sector construction jobs and then sustainably enhancing the future economic competitiveness of the entire region by providing more reliable transit service.
The enhanced Flamingo Route 202 will provide a critical connection to three existing high-capacity transit lines: the Deuce and the Strip and Downtown Express lines that operate on the Las Vegas Strip, and the Boulder Highway Express that operates on Boulder Highway. Additionally, there is the future potential for a fourth high-capacity transit connection along Maryland Parkway between the airport past UNLV to Downtown.
The RTC and project partners studied the Flamingo Road corridor in 2008 intensively and found that an enhanced transit route would improve the convenience, efficiency, and reliability of the overall transit system. The efficiency of the project will also be improved by an innovative integration of transit planning with land use development policies.
I respectfully ask for your full and fair consideration of this application. Please contact me anytime with questions or to discuss this matter further.
Sincerely,
Dina Titus
Member of Congress