Improvements to Highway 28 near Incline Village are designed to have multiple benefits – get cyclists and pedestrians off the road, add parking, make it safer for motorists, and improve Lake Tahoe’s clarity.

It all started as a bike path. Construction of the three-plus mile shared-use path from the south end of Incline Village to Sand Harbor State Park is part of the larger Stateline-to-Stateline bike path that will link the Nevada side of the lake. The Incline section starts this summer and will take two to three years to build.

An underpass will be constructed near the Flume Trail. Two parking areas will be put in near the Ponderosa Ranch and Tunnel Creek Café. Centerline rumble strips and emergency roadside turnouts will also be added to Highway 28 for safety reasons.

Water quality improvements include enhanced roadside drainage inlets, sediment filtration systems and erosion control measures.

More than 2½  million vehicles a year travel on Highway 28, mixing with as many as 2,000 pedestrian and bicyclists who park and recreate near the side of the road. This creates safety and accessibility concerns. Between 2006 and 2013,107 crashes occurred in the area; accounting for approximately 25 percent of crashes Highway 28, according to the Nevada Department of Transportation.

About 1 million a year visit this section of Lake Tahoe.

The project will be paid for with federal, state and local dollars.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report