Desert version of Alligator Alley is needed for Las Vegas and Phoenix

By Robert Lang

Thursday, Sept. 17, 2015 | 2 a.m.

Las Vegas and Phoenix need to be linked via the interstate highway system. They are the largest U.S. metropolitan areas in close proximity (less than 300 miles apart) without a direct, free-flowing, multiple-lane interstate highway linking them. In fact, a Las Vegas-to-Phoenix interstate highway is the most notable missing segment in the entire Southwestern highway network.

Why? The answer is simple. Dial back to the Federal Highway Act of 1956, which delivered us the interstate highway system. In 1956, Phoenix was a decent-sized regional hub, but hardly a major metropolitan area. Las Vegas was a speck of a metropolis (and Nevada the least populous of all 48 states). The 1956 highway act prioritized interstate links between major urban centers based on their 1950 census population. Virtually all metro areas with more than 50,000 residents were to be linked by interstate highways. Phoenix made the cut; Las Vegas did not. So the two cities weren’t linked, and today the best we have is U.S. 93, an 80-year-old road that sprung from President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administration.

Las Vegas was not being picked on. Other big metro areas would emerge in the second half of the 20th century in what would collectively become known as the Sun Belt that also were missing an interstate link to neighboring regions. For example, the southwest coast of Florida did not include a really big city in 1950, so there was no planned interstate from that area to Miami. Still, Florida planned and built a pre-interstate connector — dubbed Alligator Alley by AAA — to bridge the two regions.

Alligator Alley is instructive for the Southwest. It showed a commitment by Florida to link its east and west coasts via a major highway through the Everglades. At first, Alligator Alley was a simple two-lane toll road, but over time it grew to a full four-lane, limited-access highway, and it now forms the southernmost section of Interstate 75.

Thank you, Congress, for designating Interstate 11 as a planned highway between Las Vegas and Phoenix. And kudos to the Arizona and Nevada congressional delegations, the Maricopa Association of Governments and the Las Vegas Metro Chamber of Commerce in leading this legislative effort. But having an interstate corridor designated by Congress is no guarantee of federal funding. Given where Washington is these days — with short-term funding resolutions and spending sequestration — you can bet the check from D.C. for much of I-11 won’t be in the mail anytime soon. However, the 15-mile section of highway within Nevada is fully funded with more than 90 percent of the $318 million project costs coming from federal funds. The real funding challenge concerns the 200-mile stretch within Arizona from the O’Callaghan-Tillman Memorial Bridge to Wickenburg.

Clearly, we need to emulate Florida and begin building a Southwestern version of Alligator Alley. We need to brand the Las Vegas-to-Phoenix highway and prioritize funding to construct this road right now. I propose that the section of the I-11 corridor linking Las Vegas and Phoenix be called the Desert Connector. The name connotes the intent of the road — to bridge the gap between America’s two biggest desert metropolises. The Desert Connector will deliver a trip from Las Vegas to Phoenix without a traffic light. The highway also links the Mojave and Sonoran deserts. The two iconic plants in these deserts — Joshua trees and saguaros — line much of the route.

What improvements does the Desert Connector need to be a quasi-interstate? Bypasses must be built around Boulder City (now under construction), and around Kingman and Wickenburg (now planned). The route also needs new lanes of four-lane divided highway between Wickenburg and Interstate 40 in Arizona, which is also partly under construction. If we complete these projects — with a price range in the hundreds of millions (not billions) of dollars — there will be a four-lane road between Las Vegas and Phoenix without a light. Will it be a full-on interstate? No, but it will be a pretty darn good road and will vastly improve drive times, safety, and movement of people and goods from Southern Nevada to Central Arizona.

Las Vegas and Phoenix sure could use a higher-capacity surface connection. Data from Brookings Mountain West show that the two regions already maintain solid trade relations. For instance, Phoenix sends the most freight to Las Vegas of any region except Los Angeles. Southern California, Central Arizona and Southern Nevada are emerging as a super region that I call the Southwest Triangle. The Desert Connector solidifies the Phoenix and Las Vegas connections in a mega urban system and provides a smaller region such as Las Vegas access to our neighbors’ global connections and advanced industry workers.

Let’s keep pushing the federal government to fund I-11. Las Vegas and Phoenix and the entire Southwest Triangle need this last major urban link in the interstate system. At the same time, we should build and promote the Desert Connector as a much-improved proto I-11. Better connecting Las Vegas to Phoenix will spark new business exchanges and grow both regional economies.

Robert Lang is director of Brookings Mountain West at UNLV.