Tag: construction

I always love seeing progress on the new section of the freeway, so here are a couple of quickie snaps I took while I was out that way.

This is the new bridge they're building at the Fairview interchange. Unlike at Hwy 50, where the freeway went over the road, here the road is going over the freeway. The roadbed is being prepared to take asphalt, so they can start routing Fairview over the bridge instead of around the temporary shoo-fly to the left.

A look under the bridge. The quickest way for them to build a bridge like this is to pour the support columns, then fill dirt all the way up to where the bottom of the roadway is going to be. Then they can set up forms and pour concrete right on the dirt without needing any kind of elaborate scaffolding and support. So all that is finished, and now they have to dig out the dirt underneath the bridge to reveal the brand new overpass. Once Fairview traffic is going over the bridge, they'll finally be able to start on the actual roadbed of the freeway itself.

They've slowed down construction on the new medical office at Fifth and Division, but they haven't stopped completely. A couple of guys were on site just today, up on the scaffolding. It's looking really nice so far, a good fit with the neighborhood.

It was a fight between them and Mother Nature, and they won. The crews building the new Holiday Inn Express in Minden were trying to get the roof finished before the first snows hit. Well, they made it. Still a long way to go in the construction, but at least the snow is on the roof where it belongs, and not in the rooms.

The Carson-Tahoe Quail park may not have any tenants yet, but that's not stopping them from improving access to the shopping center. Crews are on site right now extending Appion Way, at the south end of the center, to intersect with Carson Street.

Developers have more plans for this area, including more retail space and a Terrible's convenience store. Now, whether any of this comes to pass or the economy puts the brakes on all of it is yet to be seen. But they do seem to be going ahead with building the intersection.

Work has started on the Sportsman's Warehouse next door to the new Burlington Coat Factory. If you remember, this site used to be taken up by the south half of the old Wal*Mart building, which was demolished while the north half was remodeled into Burlington. Now they're putting the cinder block walls back up that they tore down only months ago. I'm guessing that the size and configuration of the store is going to be different than the old Wal*Mart space, otherwise, why go to all the trouble of demolition?

The new Holiday Inn Express hotel at the Minden Gateway Center is coming along nicely. It's still the only construction taking place at the center, though. Work on all the retail and office space is holding back for the moment.

Interesting that they're building it in two halves. The north half is up to three floors already, but the south half is only on the first floor still. And there seems to be some kind of atrium connecting the two halves.

I can't wait to see what it looks like when it's done! Hopefully there will be some interesting architecture to it, not just another square box.

I drive by this new house being built at the corner of Fifth and Division quite often on my way to work. It's looking better than ever, and seems to be topping out soon.

News Carson City is reporting that they've broken ground on the railroad bridge that will carry the Virginia & Truckee tracks over Hwy 50 in Mound House. This bridge is a little bit west of the original alignment of the V&T, right at the peak of the hill on the Carson-Lyon county line. The bridge itself, if I remember the details right, is an old Union Pacific bridge out of Vegas that was donated to the V&T a couple of years ago. So all they have to do is built supports for it, then set the thing down over the roadway. Estimates are for the bridge to be in place by January, then the tracks will be laid across it next summer.

After that the project will be out of money, and the tracks will end somewhere in the brush above Pick N Pull. So if they want to go any further they've got to start raising funds soon. But at least the rails will be within spitting distance of Carson City, and conceivably the Grays could start running excursions to Mound House and back.

Progress on the Riverwood shopping center. Grading of the site is still going on, and will be for a while. They're slowly working on leveling out the site, or at least building the hill into a series of terraces.

They've also put up a sign at the corner, confirming that the project is, in fact, still called Riverwood. They also have a link to their website, www.riverwoodnv.com. If you go there, make sure to give yourself some time. There's so much to do and see that you could spend a whole afternoon there.

I think they should send their sign back to the sign shop, though. Look at the list of tenants on the left side. Kohl's and Jethro's Casino have already been announced, so those are no big surprise. But this is the first I'm hearing about Circuit City moving into the shopping center. And it will probably be the last, according to the latest news reports.

Work on the new structure joining the two wings of the Nevada State Museum has been progressing steadily. They're still working on the steel frame of the new lobby, which will be enclosed in glass and made to look like a mining headframe.