LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) – Two forthcoming flood prevention projects aim to solve the ongoing flooding problems in the East Las Vegas Valley, as numerous roads, cars and homes were impacted by monsoon rain and fast-flowing flood waters last year.
Two detention basins are planned for the Northeast side of Clark County off Hollywood Road.
Work on the northern Jim McGaughey Detention Basin should begin in May or June with completion in one year. The total projected cost is $23 million, according to the Regional Flood Control District. The County already allocated $17 million and a supplemental $6 million will be reviewed at the March 14 Commission meeting.
The Orchard Detention Basin was completed in 2015, and a second phase would collect flows off the mountain and direct them into the basin. The projected cost is $9 million for possible review in an August board meeting. Construction could start at the end of 2024.
The county needs to purchase an empty plot of land off of Linden Road to complete the project. Chair Tick Segerblom said the owner is willing to work with the county on a sale, but eminent domain was an approved option.
“We had record floods on both the north side of Hollywood and then the south side of Hollywood, which really impacts a lot of households and created major damage, with no insurance for that, either. We’re finally to get to the end point where we’re creating detention basins, flow control channels,” Segerblom said.
Though there has been an ongoing need for the extension of the Orchard Detention Basin, the process to secure the land took around eight years: Clark County had to work with different federal agencies to first sort through old mining rights, then bypassed a wilderness study occurring in the area.
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