Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Project Neon:

U.S. 95 lane shift, ramp closure on Monday part of final phase of ‘Big Squeeze’

The Big Squeeze Begins

Traffic is constricted by lane closures related to Project Neon, a nearly $1 billion, 4-mile-long widening of Interstate 15 from the U.S. 95 interchange to Sahara Avenue on Tuesday, March 21, 2017.

The final phase of the “Big Squeeze” portion of Project Neon is set to shift traffic on U.S. 95 beginning Monday.

The Nevada Department of Transportation will shift traffic to the north between Rancho Drive and the Spaghetti Bowl in downtown Las Vegas starting 6 a.m. Monday morning until January.

The shift will allow NDOT to rebuild pavement on the mile-long portion of road that was last upgraded in 1992.

There will still be two travel lanes available in each direction. However, the ramp from southbound U.S. 95 to northbound Interstate 15 will be closed through January.

“This the last phase of the ‘Big Squeeze’ that began in March” NDOT spokesman Tony Illia said. “Traffic lanes are being shifted to the north so that construction can occur along the southbound lanes, building a new half-mile-long carpool flyover as well as rehabilitating about a mile of pavement that was last improved 25 years ago.”

Project Neon is 42 percent complete after a a year of construction, he said.

A 81-foot-tall, half-mile-long High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) flyover structure linking U.S. 95 with Interstate 15 will be built during the closure.

Motorists are urged to use a “zipper merge,” where cars alternate turns passing into the through lane of traffic, instead of trying to dart in at the last moment before the lane is fully reduced.

“A zipper merge is safer and 40 percent faster than early merging with less anxiety and frustration,” Illia said.

The work is part of the almost $1 billion 3.7-mile-long widening of Interstate 15 from the U.S. 95 interchange to Sahara Avenue.

For more information on Project Neon, check the project's website, Twitter page @NDOTProjectNeon or the smartphone and tablet app. Motorists can also call the Project Neon hotline available in both English and Spanish at 702-293-6366.

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