A Long-Awaited Upgrade for Reno, Nevada's Pyramid Highway

About 70 years ago, the Pyramid Lake Road near Reno was a dusty back road connecting small farms. Today, it has evolved to become the Pyramid Highway, a traffic-choked arterial serving 50,000 vehicles daily.

To catch up, the Nevada Dept. of Transportation (NDOT) has undertaken a massive reconstruction of the critical roadway that will transform it into a modern, multimodal corridor for a fast-growing region.

Work on a 2.5-mile section of the north-south urban highway just east of Reno has been underway since mid-2023. When completed this summer, the project in suburban Sparks will have rebuilt and widened much of the road from four to six lanes and added bike lanes, sidewalks, curbs and gutters. Other improvements include a barrier-protected 10-ft shared-use path on one side of the road, smart traffic signals, sound walls, enhanced lighting, landscaping and improved drainage infrastructure.

“These upgrades are designed to improve traffic flow, safety and accessibility for all users,” says Nanette Maxwell, senior project manager for NDOT, the lead agency on the project. “This project will not only reduce traffic congestion and travel times, but it will also generate significant crash-cost savings for vehicles, bicyclists and pedestrians” because the improvements are expected to reduce accidents.

Stakeholders were kept up-to-date on the disruptive elements of the work with a strong public engagement campaign.
Photo courtesy Nevada Dept. of Transportation

Keeping Traffic Flowing

The $66-million effort—the first phase of the six-phase Pyramid Highway Project—is funded through a mix of federal, state and local sources, including a $23-million federal Better Utilizing Investments to Leverage Development grant, with NDOT and the Regional Transportation Commission of Washoe County also contributing. Watsonville, Calif.-based Granite Construction is the general contractor.

The greater Reno area’s population has grown by 50% since 2001 to 500,000, with the corridor home to many of those residents—and likely the home of future ones. The remaining phases of the project are designed to expand capacity, enhance multimodal accessibility and improve connectivity in the rapidly growing areas just east and north of Reno and in suburban Sparks.

The road—designated State Route 445—still extends north of Reno to Pyramid Lake, the third largest lake in Nevada behind Lake Mead and Lake Tahoe. For Reno, it remains an important commuter route for the growing population. Nearly 40,000 people live within two miles of the project, and more than 90% of them work outside the area. This put maintaining traffic flow near the top of the construction team’s priorities.

“One significant accomplishment that set this project apart compared to similar projects on major corridors, was that during construction we maintained the same amount of traffic through lanes during the daytime hours—which virtually left the typical motorist unaffected by the construction process,” says Granite Construction project manager Matthew Weber. “This is a huge accomplishment for a project of this scale.”

Part of that included use of drone imaging, which was incorporated in planning for traffic flow, paving and overall construction phasing.

“The drone imaging has been integral to this project’s success,” says Weber. “Planning from current drone images is a luxury that this project was able to capitalize on, and this led to better plans that lessened the impact on the public.”

The project’s 2,200 ft of soundwalls are adorned with nature-inspired elements derived from the region.
Photo courtesy Nevada Dept. of Transportation

Effective Outreach

For its part, the public mostly took the traffic disruptions in stride.

“The motorists adapted well to the project,” says Alma Piceno-Ramirez, NDOT assistant district engineer. “We had no incidents related to our traffic control.”

Along with showing patience, the public also contributed to making the project more aesthetically pleasing.

Formed into the project’s 2,200 ft of sound walls are nature-inspired elements such as fish and waves that pay tribute to Pyramid Lake, about 30 miles from the construction area and the northern terminus of the highway. Breaks in the decorative wave pattern on portions of the wall proved jarring to some in the public, leading to a prompt response from the design team.

NDOT worked with the public to develop alternatives and solutions to mask the unintended break in the pattern while enhancing the overall design with metal artwork.

“This unexpected challenge was solved with the help and input of the community,” Piceno-Ramirez says. “NDOT provided some renderings that would obscure the wave break for the community to vote on through the project website. The two with the most votes will be fabricated and added to the walls.”

Along with voting on sound wall designs, the public was able to use the website and other communication tools to track the project and engage with NDOT.

“Having a project website and various methods of communication with the community and stakeholders is valuable,” says Piceno-Ramirez. “We were able to answer public comments fairly quickly through the website’s email capabilities and will carry on these methods of communication to future projects.”

Improving the drainage infrastructure along the State Route 445 corridor was a key element of the project.
Photo courtesy Nevada Dept. of Transportation

High-Pressure Situation

Along with the walls above ground, the project encountered a previously unidentified issue below ground that required gingerly working around a high-pressure water line that serves the nearby community of Spanish Springs.

The local water utility notified the construction team that the line needed to be at least 2 ft below ground, with a subsequent review of subsurface utility exploration data revealing a small section of the pipe would have less than 2 ft of cover.

“Meetings were held between NDOT, Granite and the local water authority to develop a work plan allowing the contractor to continue working,” says Aaron Lobato, roadway design project coordinator at NDOT.

Exposing too much of the high-pressure line could invite pipe failure, and stopping the water flow was not an option. Crews addressed the challenge by working in 50-ft increments to dig up and remove surface material down to the subgrade, which was graded and compacted. The pipe was then temporarily covered with gravel, which will be replaced with a layer of aggregate base to be added as part of final roadway construction.

Current work is part of the first of six phases aimed at upgrading the corridor.
Photo courtesy Nevada Dept. of Transportation

The collaborative elements of the project — from robust public engagement on the website to the real-time multiagency cooperation—were cited as examples of the understanding of how important Pyramid Highway is to the Reno of today and tomorrow.

“This project holds regional significance and will provide meaningful benefits to the growing community,” says Amanda Callegari, commission engineering manager. “To ensure its successful delivery, the [commission] and NDOT have joined forces to implement these vital improvements.”

Callegari says interagency efforts also included the commission collaborating with the highway agency  through the National Environmental Policy Act process and completing the project’s environmental impact study as part of “a partnership that will continue throughout the remaining phases of the project.”

The most ambitious of the remaining phases, Phase 3, proposes construction of a new connection between Pyramid Highway and U.S. 395 directly north of Reno, offering an additional route for north-south travel.

The commission now is advancing a portion of Phase 5 known as the Pyramid/Sparks Interchange to a 60% design level to reduce future right-of-way conflicts with expanding development in the area.

In addition, design work is kicking off on Phase 3 to better plan for necessary funding and to evaluate potential construction packaging.