STATELINE -- Riding a bike around Lake Tahoe [Nevada] might be possible in the coming years as 10 agencies finalize the Tahoe Bikeway Project, also known as the Stateline-to-Stateline route.

Scott Morgan, director of the Douglas County Parks and Recreation Department, recently updated parks commissioners on the proposal.

No money from the county will be used to fund the project. State and federal funds will pay for most of the asphalt. The voter-approved Question 1 secured $5 million in funds.

More recently, agencies involved secured an additional $500,000 from the Southern Nevada Public Land Management Act and $223,000 in a Scenic Byway grant.

Morgan acknowledged the difficulties of constructing such a project in the Lake Tahoe Basin, considering coverage issues, county-state-federal-tribal lands and environmental concerns.

He said he expects environmental documents could be devised in six to nine months, with construction beginning in the next couple of years.

"When we are done, it will probably be a national treasure to be able to bike state line to state line," Morgan said.

A portion of the Douglas County trail will be a demonstration site. Another one will be from Incline Village to Sand Harbor.

The Douglas route starts at the Stateline casinos, goes through Nevada Beach and ends at Round Hill Pines Beach.

Connecting communities

"These projects were selected because of their potential to connect communities and recreation sites, the ability to break the projects into implementable segments, the existing demand for bike and pedestrian use, the high potential for visitor use, and the high visibility to promote future connections on the east shore," Morgan wrote in an April 29 letter to Douglas County Manager T. Michael Brown.

Morgan expects to see a cantilever bridge installed on the lake side of Cave Rock to get cyclists through that section. Remnants of the old Lincoln Highway will assist with that endeavor, he said.

Park and Recreation Commissioner Nancy Gardner was concerned about Washoe Tribe's approval of the Cave Rock section.

Cave Rock for years was the subject of a court battle involving climbers' rights and the sacredness of the rock to the Washoe tribal community.

Morgan said the tribe is one of the players in the bike path coalition.

TRPA is leading the bike path effort. EDAW, the international design firm with offices at Stateline, has been hired to create the path.

"EDAW has completed the majority of the field reconnaissance and has the base mapping completed so that we can begin the public discussion on the vision, goals and design parameters," Morgan said in the letter to Brown.