Nevada Tries Raising Freeway Speed Limit

CARSON CITY, Nev. — Nevada notified the federal government Monday it will raise the 55 m.p.h. national speed limit to 70 m.p.h. on a section of freeway near Reno starting today.

But the speed limit increase may last only as long as it takes the federal government to withhold highway construction money.

A 1985 law, effective today, allows the speed limit increase to 70 m.p.h., but the state law self-destructs if the U.S. Transportation Department starts to tie up the construction money, worth about $66 million a year to Nevada.