Commission delays talks on proposed elevated expressways

By Jackie Valley

Tuesday, May 17, 2016 | 1:26 p.m.

The Clark County Commission today postponed discussion about proposed elevated expressways between McCarran International Airport and the Las Vegas Strip.

Commissioners want more time to study an overall plan for the resort corridor, Commissioner Larry Brown said after the meeting. The discussion may come during the commission’s next meeting on June 7, he said.

Last month, the Regional Transportation Commission approved a massive, long-term plan to improve transportation in the Las Vegas area, especially near the Strip. The Transportation Investment Business Plan proposed a number of potential transit-related projects, including the elevated expressways and light rail.

The estimated $200 million expressway project — billed as a way to ease traffic congestion between the Strip and airport — would involve building two elevated, one-way expressways over existing roads.

One expressway would be over Swenson Street and Paradise Road, and the other would be over Koval Lane and Tropicana Avenue.

The commission indicated support for the expressways earlier this year, but critics argue it’s an outdated plan that won’t make a dent in the real problem of too many vehicles in the resort corridor.

Commissioners pushed back against the criticism, including a Las Vegas Sun editorial, at a meeting earlier this month.

Commission Chairman Steve Sisolak suggested proponents of light rail were “dream shopping without a plan to pay for it.”

County officials have said many transit projects, including the elevated expressways, would be funded by a hotel room tax earmarked for transportation.

The county has already issued a request for qualifications for professional engineering services related to the expressway project.

Transportation officials, meanwhile, have estimated light rail from the airport to the Strip and then downtown could cost from $2.1 billion to $12.5 billion.

In March, a group of public and private officials from Nevada, led by the RTC and law firm Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck LLP, visited Denver to examine that city’s light rail system. Denver leaders stressed the importance of teamwork among elected officials and the business community for light rail to become a reality.

The RTC also is exploring the possibility of building a light rail system along Maryland Parkway, regardless of what happens with transit plans for the Strip.