TONOPAH -- A $16 million allocation by the 2007 session of the Nevada Legislature intended for the widening of Highway 160 from the Red Rock turnoff to Mountain Springs has been placed off limits in the general fund due to the state budget deficit, NDOT Deputy Director Kent Cooper said.

The interim finance committee members "have essentially come back and rescinded the $16 million and $40 million of the $154 million we got for the I-15 job," Cooper said. "Technically, the money is still there in the budget categories, but they have taken action where we have no access."

Both state legislators representing this area, State Sen. Mike McGinness, R-Fallon, and Assemblyman Ed Goedhart, R-Amargosa Valley, touted that $16 million allocation as a major accomplishment of the 74th annual state legislative session which adjourned in June 2007.

Goedhart, a member of the Assembly Transportation Committee, said he realizes the state budget has to be cut by $1 billion, but would have preferred a similar 10 percent budget cut to that project as occurred elsewhere in the state government, instead of completely gutting the $16 million appropriation.

The NDOT work plan for the coming year, beginning July 1, does include $900,000 for a preliminary engineering study on the widening of that section of Highway 160, which is two lane much of the way, with a passing lane for part of the uphill section going westbound.

"When the monies are available, then it's going to speed up the actual construction process because that engineering study will already have been done," Goedhart said. "They're really focusing all their money on the super mega-projects, which they consider I-15, Highway 95 and the Spaghetti Bowl."

On the Pahrump side of the pass, the widening of a remaining 8.5-mile stretch of two-lane road on Highway 160 from the Clark County line to Calvada Boulevard is now listed as a "long-range element" on the NDOT work plan for 2009-2018. That means it isn't likely to be constructed for from four to 10 years from now. NDOT estimates that project would cost $26.3 million.

There is $15.4 million in the NDOT budget for next year to finish the widening of Blue Diamond Road, which is Highway 160 in Las Vegas. NDOT is currently widening the segment of Blue Diamond Road from Decatur Boulevard to Rainbow Boulevard to eight lanes, a $52.2 million job awarded to Road and Highway Builders in December that is expected to be completed next winter, according to NDOT spokesman Bob McKenzie.

He said that project includes a grade separation over the Union Pacific Railroad tracks that will help Pahrump commuters avoid that bottleneck.

Focus Property Group signed a development agreement with NDOT to pay for the widening of the section from Rainbow Boulevard to Buffalo Drive, the entrance to the Mountains Edge subdivision, McKenzie said.

The projects up for funding in Nye County in the coming year are mostly small maintenance items, like installing box culverts, NDOT officials said during their annual presentation to Nye County commissioners last week.

NDOT Director Susan Martinovich brought a contingent of top officials to the commissioners meeting at the Nye County Courthouse June 3.

"We are preparing for the '09 legislative session. We do maintain a flat budget," Martinovich said.

The initiation of tolls for high-occupancy vehicle lanes on Interstate 15 and Highway 95 through Las Vegas could free up additional money for projects, like the widening of Highway 160, she said.

"Long range we are still committed to State Route 160 and finishing the widening through that corridor. With the growth we're seeing from Pahrump to Las Vegas, it's not ignored. It's just funding issues we had to back off on a little bit. We're committed to the design on those projects," Martinovich said.

Goedhart said it's difficult to believe NDOT officials will follow through on their promises again, after the Highway 160 allocation was pulled.

In Nye County, NDOT plans to shell out $1 million for construction work on the Ione Road from the Yomba Indian Reservation extending 14 miles west, in far northwestern Nye County.

Nye County Commissioner Roberta "Midge" Carver said she has been trying to work out an arrangement with the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs to improve that road. She said children travel by bus to school in Gabbs there.

"The project was much more expensive than what we originally thought," Cooper told the commission. "There are long stretches of the roadway that need improvement. We want to make sure that the improvement that is being done will be maintained by either the county or the Indian nation out there."

Some asphalt seal work will be done on 50 miles of Highway 375, the Extraterrestrial Highway, from Highway 6 in Warm Springs to the Lincoln County line, at an expected cost of $628,440. Highway 361, the Gabbs Valley Road, will be seal coated for 25 miles, at an estimated cost of $77,850.

A traffic alert sign will be constructed on Highway 6 about five miles east of the junction with the Duckwater Road, Highway 379.

Another project in the long-range element category is the reconstruction of Airport Road from Highway 6 to the Tonopah Airport.

Statewide, Nevada will be installing more rumble strips on medians and on the edge of the roadways. "Our statistics show a lot of our crashes are because people don't stay in their lanes," Martinovich said. But she noted, "They are noisy, I will vouch for that. You drive on them and they will wake you up."

Commissioner Butch Borasky thanked NDOT officials for widening the shoulders on Highway 95 all the way up to Walker Lake.

Commissioner Joni Eastley asked if repairing the historic train station in Rhyolite would qualify for transportation enhancement funds. Cooper said that would be a historic transportation project similar to the Caliente train station restoration.

Eastley said the Airport Managers Association, of which she is a member, will be lobbying the legislature next session for money out of the aviation trust fund.

The Pahrump Senior Center is in line to receive $66,000 per year over the next four years, for its senior citizen and disabled demand response service.