LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Areas with a lot of pavement, but not a lot of trees or grass can turn into an urban heat island. A pocket of land that retains heat because of increasing development.
Las Vegas is one of those areas, but its hot sister city, Phoenix, is combating these urban heat island effects through "cool corridors." These cool corridors are roads sprayed with an environmentally friendly solution to make them a lighter color that absorbs less heat.
Could Nevada look into this?
County Commissioner, Tick Segerblom, thinks so.
"The fact that they are beyond the trial period and they’ve actually seen it work and ready to go forward tells us we don’t have to reinvent the wheel," he said. "We can do this."
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Phoenix implemented the program last year, and so far their street transportation department has reported surface temperatures are between 10.2 and 12 degrees cooler than before.
Urban heat island effects can be felt all through Las Vegas and community members like Brenda thinks it could really help areas like the East Side, the Historic West Side and North Las Vegas where there isn’t a lot of cooling.
"Lake Mead and Lamb. If you think about that intersection it’s so dry, there’s no trees, there’s no grass. I know that they have to wait for the cooler temperatures," said Brenda Zamora with Make It Work Nevada. "Folks waiting for the bus. There’s sometimes no shade."
Bringing this technology to Nevada is something Commissioner Segerblom is looking into.
"I’m looking into planning a trip to Phoenix to see it because it sounds perfect for my district," Segerblom said.
The City of Las Vegas also said in a statement that they are looking into specialized pavement treatments to possibly lower temperatures but there are no plans as of right now.
The city is looking into the possibility or using specialized concrete treatments on some city roadways to possibly lower temperatures a couple of degrees. At this time it is a technology and process that the city is exploring, but we do not currently have any projects scheduled.
