Wednesday, Sept. 24, 2003 | 11:22 a.m.
Drivers will have several ways of finding out about imminent construction work that will impact traffic, state Department of Transportation spokesman Robert McKenzie says.
In three years a new piece of the Las Vegas Beltway will carry traffic between Green Valley and U.S. 95 unimpeded by the railroad crossing and stoplights that now slow traffic.
But until then drivers will face more than two years of construction and the traffic tie-ups sure to come with it, as Lake Mead Drive from Gibson Road to U.S. 95 is replaced with a new highway.
"We know going in that it's not going to be easy for us," Henderson Mayor Jim Gibson said. "We'll need to leave home a little earlier, and it will require a lot of patience. But it will be a new life for us."
Fran Reilly, manager of Eric's Smoke Shop near the intersection of Gibson and Lake Mead, said the roads will be a "disaster" during construction.
"But I think it'll be good. We do have a traffic problem that's a nightmare and hopefully this will fix it," she said.
The new stretch of interstate is expected to clear the traffic backups that now clog Lake Mead Drive by lifting the traffic above the stoplights, making travel east and west in Henderson easier and faster.
When finished, there will be a new mile-plus piece of the beltway with a new highway interchange at Gibson Road and another new interchange connecting the beltway to U.S. 95. There will also be new bicycle and pedestrian trails going under the highway, which goes by three numeric names in that stretch: U.S. 95, U.S. 93 and Interstate 515.
The entire project is expected to cost $110 million and be completed by summer 2006, Nevada Department of Transportation officials said.
NDOT officials say the public will be given ample notice of changes to traffic patterns through updates on a website, announcements through the media and over the radio, and roadside message boards.
Officials also recommended drivers find alternate routes to stay away from area as much as possible.
Utility companies have been working in the area for weeks, moving gas and electricity lines in preparation for the massive roads project. Traffic has been disrupted at times by the work, which has almost exclusively been done at night to minimize the impact on traffic.
Scott Rawlins, project manager for the Department of Transportation, said equipment and machinery for the coming project will be moving into the area this week.
As early as next week work on removing road medians on Lake Mead and Gibson will begin, and within a month Rawlins expects work on lowering Gibson Road will commence.
The first big impact on traffic is expected in two or three months, when all of the traffic will be moved to what is now the southern side of Lake Mead, he said.
The contractor, Washington Group International of Las Vegas, is required to keep at least two traffic lanes in each direction open during the day on weekdays, Rawlins said. That piece of the road now has three lanes in each direction.
At night and on the weekends Lake Mead traffic could be limited to one lane in each direction, he said.
Exact dates for the changes to traffic patterns are not yet known, and a complete construction schedule probably won't be available for at least a week or more, he said.
"There will be heavy construction for 2 1/2 years," NDOT spokesman Robert McKenzie said. "One day you'll breeze through, but other days you won't. It's not wise to continue to use that as a commuter route."
NDOT is not recommending any specific detours around the area, and McKenzie said there are ways drivers can avoid the construction area.
He said drivers should find a route that will work best for them before the heavy construction starts.
For east-west traffic, the closest roads will be Warm Springs and Horizon Ridge. But the mayor said neither of those roads is a very good alternative.
"You could use Warm Springs but then you go past Green Valley High School, and Warm Springs was never intended to be a major arterial," Gibson said. "But Horizon Ridge is worse. I would do anything to avoid Horizon Ridge."
Some drivers might use Sunset Road instead of Warm Springs, Gibson said. But he noted that Sunset is already heavily used.
"It will not be done without inconvenience," Gibson said. "There are not a lot of good alternative routes."
Rachael Cerbone already avoids the busy piece of Lake Mead as much as she can in her commute from her home in senior apartments on Gibson to her job at a Las Vegas Starbucks. Cerbone heads west to Interstate 15 in the mornings, and then takes U.S. 95 to the Auto Show Drive exit in the afternoons.
"I'm from New York where the first thing you learn is, what's another way to get there," Cerbone said.
Cerbone said she, too, is hopeful that extending the beltway will clear up the traffic.
"Because now you have two kinds of traffic, local and freeway, on the road," she said.
A ceremonial groundbreaking for the project, which NDOT has named the I-515/ Beltway Interchange project, is scheduled for Friday.
The $82.2 million construction contract is the second largest in NDOT history. Only the $91.8 million Las Vegas Spaghetti Bowl was more expensive.
When including the cost of design, engineering and utility relocation, the total cost of the Henderson project rises to $110 million.
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