Carson City Freeway, Snyder Ave. Bridge
Carson City, NV

The Nevada Department of Transportation (NDOT) is currently designing and constructing a new freeway to carry traffic around the downtown area.  This major freeway construction project has been divided into phases due to funding considerations.

Phase 1 of the project constructed the northern half of the Carson City Freeway. The project starts north of Carson City near the East Lake Boulevard Interchange in Washoe Valley and extends on new alignment to the point where it intersects with US-50 East, just east of the Pinon Plaza. 

Phase 2 constructs the southern half of the Carson City Freeway starting at the US-50 East Interchange, and continuing 4.9 miles south on a new alignment to a point where it connects to US-50 West at the existing US-50 West - Tahoe Juncture / S. Carson Street intersection.

The Freeway will be designed for two lanes in each direction with provisions for future widening in the median. The southern ramps for the US-50 East SPUI will be constructed providing a full interchange.  A full interchange will be constructed at Fairview Drive.  A full SPUI will be constructed at US-50 West-Tahoe Junction / S. Carson Street intersection. Grade separation structures will be constructed at 5th Street, Koontz Lane, Clearview Drive and Snyder Avenue.

R₂H is designing the Snyder Avenue grade separation.  R₂H prepared the Type Selection Report (TSR) for this structure during preliminary engineering as well as full bridge design and drawings for the 2-span cast-in-place concrete box girder (post tensioned).  The design was accomplished under the new AASHTO LRFD specifications in a high seismic zone.  The foundations are spread footings on compressible soils.  R₂H also prepared quantity and cost estimates for the structure.  The bridge has a significant skew, which made the design significantly more complicated and created longer than normal spans.