Construction of a third lane for Homestead Road, Charleston Park Avenue and Manse Road could begin by the end of the year, said Nye County Public Works Director Samson Yao.

Yao told Nye County Commissioners last week that Homestead Road would be three lanes from Highway 160 down to Gamebird Road if there aren't any right-of-way issues. It would be a lane in each direction with a continuous left turn lane, similar to portions of Highway 160.

County commissioners approved a $324,432 contract with PBS&J in March 2007 to do a right-of-way assessment and prepare engineering designs for improvements to 14,500 feet of Homestead Road between Highway 160 and Gamebird Road; 4,800 feet of Charleston Park Avenue between Highway 372 and Leslie Street and 20,000 feet of Manse Road between Highway 160 and Homestead Road.

The draft preliminary engineering designs have been completed for all three roads, according to the monthly public works department status report. Work has begun on county comments on the design and incorporating county drainage information.

"Hopefully we'll have the first shovel sometime by the end of this year," Yao said after briefing commissioners at the June 17 meeting. "We're still doing the engineering design, that's why I don't have the definitive date when it's going to be done. Hopefully by the end of this year we should be ready to start something."

The county will use funds from impact fees paid by developers, Yao said. County commissioners in August 2005 adopted ordinance No. 302 which levies a fee of $1,298 on the construction of each new residence for street improvements. A fee of $1.54 to $2.87 per square foot was tacked onto the cost of building shopping centers.

"It all depends how much we collect in impact fees. We'll probably have a couple million there so we should be able to do some work," Yao said.

The public works department estimated it would cost $4.1 million to construct Homestead Road from Highway 160 to Gamebird Road, $1.5 million to construct Charleston Park Avenue and $9.25 million to construct Manse Road.

Yao said America West Homes, which plans a development on the south side of Manse Road near Mountain Falls, is expected to contribute to some of the cost of the Manse Road project.