State Route 439 (SR 439) is a four-lane

state highway A state highway, state road, or state route (and the equivalent provincial highway, provincial road, or provincial route) is usually a road that is either ''numbered'' or ''maintained'' by a sub-national state or province. A road numbered by a ...

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of t ...

Storey A storey (British English) or story (American English) is any level part of a building with a floor that could be used by people (for living, work, storage, recreation, etc.). Plurals for the word are ''storeys'' (UK) and ''stories'' (US). T ...

and Washoe Counties in

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. N ...

. Better known as USA Parkway, the route connects

U.S. Route 50 U.S. Route 50 or U.S. Highway 50 (US 50) is a major east–west route of the U.S. Highway system, stretching from Interstate 80 (I-80) in West Sacramento, California, to Maryland Route 528 (MD 528) in Ocean City, Maryland, on the Atlanti ...

(US 50) in Silver Springs to

Interstate 80 Interstate 80 (I-80) is an east–west transcontinental freeway that crosses the United States from downtown San Francisco, California, to Teaneck, New Jersey, in the New York metropolitan area. The highway was designated in 1956 as one o ...

(I-80) in

Clark Clark is an English language surname, ultimately derived from the Latin with historical links to England, Scotland, and Ireland ''clericus'' meaning "scribe", "secretary" or a scholar within a religious order, referring to someone who was educate ...

via the

Tahoe Reno Industrial Center The Tahoe Reno Industrial Center (TRI Center, or TRIC) is a privately owned industrial park, located in Storey County, east of Reno, Nevada and south of Interstate 80. The center is the largest in the United States (third largest in the world), ...

(TRIC). The northern portion of USA Parkway was initially constructed by the industrial center's developers; however, the

Nevada Department of Transportation The Nevada Department of Transportation (Nevada DOT or NDOT) is a government agency in the U.S. state of Nevada. NDOT is responsible for maintaining and improving Nevada's highway system, which includes U.S. highways and Interstate highways within ...

(NDOT) agreed to assume control of the road after Tesla announced plans to build its Gigafactory at TRIC in 2014. NDOT opened the extension of SR 439 south to US 50 in Lyon County on September 8, 2017.

Route description

SR 439 serves as a four-lane highway connector of

I-80 Interstate 80 (I-80) is an east–west transcontinental freeway that crosses the United States from downtown San Francisco, California, to Teaneck, New Jersey, in the New York metropolitan area. The highway was designated in 1956 as one o ...

and US 50. The south end of the highway is at a roundabout with US 50 west of Silver Springs, near

Silver Springs Airport Silver Springs Airport is two miles southwest of Silver Springs, in Lyon County, Nevada. It is owned by Lyon County and leased to Silver Springs Airport, LLC. Most U.S. airports use the same three-letter location identifier for the FAA and I ...

in Lyon County. From there, the road heads northwest into mountainous terrain, providing access to the

and the Tesla Gigafactory. The highway continues to its end at a modified

diamond interchange A diamond interchange is a common type of road junction, used where a controlled-access highway crosses a minor road. Design The freeway itself is grade-separated from the minor road, one crossing the other over a bridge. Approaching the ...

with I-80 located approximately east of Sparks, in Washoe County.

History

The owners of the Tahoe Reno Industrial Center constructed the 6-mile USA Parkway between I-80 and TRIC for $60 million in 2001 specifically to provide access to TRIC (touted as the largest

industrial park An industrial park (also known as industrial estate, trading estate) is an area zoned and planned for the purpose of industrial development. An industrial park can be thought of as a more "heavyweight" version of a business park or office park, ...

in the United States) in Storey County. As of August 2009, it was reported that of roadway had been completed—the southernmost to the Lyon county line had only been graded and were still awaiting pavement—while roughly of the route to reach US 50 remained unconstructed.

Expansion plans

As the plans for TRIC were realized with many large companies moving in, greater plans were made for USA Parkway. As early as 2004, the road was proposed to connect with US 50 near Silver Springs, for a total distance between I-80 and US 50 of about . The connection to Silver Springs would increase regional mobility and provide air-freight shipping possibilities at nearby

. Proponents of the USA Parkway southern expansion proposed the idea of having USA Parkway accepted into Nevada's state highway system as State Route 805, but NDOT did not take such action. In 2012 and early 2013, the road network was found to fall short of TRIC's future needs. Expansion for 2017 was calculated to have a network-wide

benefit–cost ratio A benefit–cost ratio (BCR) is an indicator, used in cost–benefit analysis, that attempts to summarize the overall value for money of a project or proposal. A BCR is the ratio of the benefits of a project or proposal, expressed in monetary terms, ...

of 9.1 (with 30-year benefits of $600 million for costs of $66 million), and a travel reduction time of 38%, as the increased traffic could use the shorter 439 for TRIC and avoid the congestion around Reno.

Expansion project

Tesla announced plans to locate its "Gigafactory" battery production facility at TRIC in September 2014. By 2015, NDOT had officially recognized the northernmost of USA Parkway as State Route 439. Inadequate traffic management on SR 439 sometimes caused traffic to back up out on the freeway, and the

Wal-Mart Walmart Inc. (; formerly Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets (also called supercenters), discount department stores, and grocery stores from the United States, headquarter ...

trucks struggle to operate on time. At the end points of the future SR 439, the combined traffic of I-80 and US 50 was around 30,000 vehicles per day in 2015. The interchange between I-80 and SR 439 had a low

level of service Level of service may refer to: * Levels of service in asset management * Level of service (transportation) in transportation and traffic * Something agreed on in a Service-level agreement A service-level agreement (SLA) is a commitment between a ...

as of 2016, causing congestion. The Regional Transportation Commission of Washoe County views the improvements as insufficient for the expected area development. To support the projected travel demand of 6,000 vehicles per day, the Nevada Department of Transportation's Board of Directors approved a design-build project to complete the southern extension of USA Parkway in an expedited manner, two years earlier than projected. The project, which involved NDOT taking over USA Parkway for $43 million and upgraded to highway standards, was planned for completion in December 2017 and was expected to cost between $65 million and $70 million. The funds to fast-track the USA Parkway build-out were obtained by deferring maintenance projects on seven low-priority northern Nevada highways. The contract price was $75.9 million. 80 workers were on site 24/6 building the road in stages, with paving started in October 2016. A two-lane

roundabout A roundabout is a type of circular intersection or junction in which road traffic is permitted to flow in one direction around a central island, and priority is typically given to traffic already in the junction.''The New Shorter Oxford En ...

was built at US 50. The I-80 ramps were also improved due to heavy traffic. At a ribbon cutting ceremony held on August 28, 2017, in anticipation of the completion of construction, Nevada Governor

Brian Sandoval Brian Edward Sandoval (; born August 5, 1963) is an American politician, academic administrator, and former federal judge who served as the 29th Governor of Nevada from 2011 to 2019. A graduate of the University of Nevada, Reno, Sandoval began ...

bestowed the honorary name of "Infinity Highway" upon USA Parkway. The extension opened for access on September 8, 2017, on budget and three months ahead of schedule.

Major intersections

References

External links

{{Attached KML, display=inline,title
Nevada DOT Project Page

439 __NOTOC__ Year 439 ( CDXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Theodosius and Festus (or, less frequently, year 1192 ' ...

Transportation in Lyon County, Nevada Transportation in Storey County, Nevada Transportation in Washoe County, Nevada