Q&A

A: The simple answer to the question is this: “Sewer, water and storm lines were old, fragile, and not working as they should.”
Shawn Cole, Nevada’s Building and Zoning Administrator, said city leaders knew the project was needed and made it a priority over the past few years in terms of budgeting for capital improvements.
Some property owners were having significant problems with their sewer and water utilities, Cole said. To not update all the lines, would have meant that individually, as lines broke, each business would have to take care of that as it happened and at a considerable expense. It also would have led to street closures on Sixth Street multiple times and with no advance notice.
Cole said it’s been evident during this project that the compaction of the soil around some of these lines was the only thing holding the fragile lines together. “We’ve seen eight main breaks (during the project so far), and none of the mains were hit (by equipment),” he said.
One other update happening as a result of this project is electrical hubs for the downtown that can accommodate future celebrations and events in the downtown area.
Cole noted that with the Sixth Street project from E to I avenues in 2017, it’s nice to see the progression of work happening for improvements on Sixth Street.