People walk down Flamingo Rd where a temporary bridge built for the Formula 1 race has been removed Wednesday, Jan. 31, 2024.
Friday, Feb. 2, 2024 | 2 a.m.
For Randy Markin, it was a day of celebration when the temporary vehicular bridge along East Flamingo Road was finally taken down. After months of down profit due to construction spurred by last year’s inaugural Formula One Las Vegas Grand Prix, a Flamingo Road mostly clear of orange cones and reduced lanes was a sign of hope for the Stage Door Casino, Stage Door Liquor and Battista’s Hole in the Wall — all of which he owns.
Then came the letter.
On Wednesday morning, Markin was brought a paper from the Las Vegas Valley Water District by his assistant manager titled “work schedule.” The business owner and his employees were left in shock after reading that East Flamingo Road would once again see monthslong construction; this time, to fix old pipes that were leaking near the site of the just-removed Flamingo Road temporary bridge.
The culprit? Old age, and possibly some extra weight that wasn’t there a year before, said Jason Gifford, assistant public information coordinator at the water district.
“We’re all in a state of shock of how the bridge could come down today and we’re excited because now maybe people will start coming to this area, and then we get this delivered today,” said Markin. “Somebody in the county commissioner’s office has got to stand up — and this is in Tick Segerblom’s district — and he’s gotta stand up and make something happen here.”
In a letter, which was delivered to businesses along the East Flamingo Road corridor, the water district said it would be replacing “approximately 2,800 feet of existing 24- and 10-inch pipelines with 2,800 feet of new 16-inch pipeline” between Las Vegas Boulevard and Koval Lane. The work, it said, was scheduled to begin in a month or two.
Two water pipelines running underneath Flamingo Road were installed in 1957 and 1963, making them some of the oldest pipelines in the city, Gifford said.
A leak is one of the simplest ways to identify when pipework is needed, Gifford explained, and it seemed the 60-something-year-old Flamingo Road system had hit its limit. Within about a week of the temporary vehicular bridge being installed, the water district discovered leaking nearby from the underlying pipes.
The temporary bridge on Flamingo Road was erected in the months leading up to the race to help alleviate traffic congestion as crews worked on the 3.8-mile Las Vegas Grand Prix track, which was contested on portions of public streets including Koval Lane, Flamingo Road and Las Vegas Boulevard. The bridge also served as an entrance to casinos inside the track on race days.
Talks between officials with the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, Clark County and Formula One’s Las Vegas Grand Prix presented the possibility of the bridge becoming a permanent fixture. But after pushback from seven nearby businesses — including Markin’s — the county announced the structure would be removed before the Super Bowl, which takes place Feb. 11.
Gifford said he didn’t have the details of what was done after the leak was discovered, but engineers with the water district confirmed they weren’t able to completely stop the leaking. With another Formula One race coming up in November, the water district decided to step in before the leaking pipe grew to be a massive problem.
“We’re not going to sit here and say if F1 caused the breaking of our pipe, but I think based on what they said, it’s most likely a combination of factors of the age of the pipe and the weight that was put on the road above it,” Gifford said. “We can’t wait and do this (work) some other year. F1 has a 10-year contract, they’re gonna be here every year for the next nine years, and we can’t wait for this pipe to get even worse.”
Under an emergency on-call contract, the pipe replacement work is expected to begin in late March or early April with completion in the fall before the 2024 Las Vegas Grand Prix event, set for Nov. 21-23.
Gifford said this “emergency pipeline installation” must be done now while the water district can still plan and create a proper construction schedule, which could include nightly construction as well as future water service interruptions for surrounding residents and businesses.
Markin and some of the other nearby business owners said they wished this work would’ve been done last year while the streets were closed for F1-related work, but Gifford said the county had set certain times where construction projects within a specific radius of the racetrack had to be paused.
Markin said his three businesses off Flamingo Road near the Linq saw a major dip in revenue and foot traffic in 2023. Construction and repaving along South Las Vegas Boulevard and East Flamingo Road closed lanes of traffic, leading to sometimes hours-long backups that made getting into Markin’s parking lot difficult.
Since opening Stage Door Casino in 1976 and purchasing Battista’s Hole in the Wall shortly after, Markin said he’s seen yearly revenue growth, but that stopped last year. He said total sales were down by over $1 million in his casino bar area, by $1.5 million at the liquor store and between $1.5 to $2 million at Battista’s, an Italian restaurant.
Anywhere from 100 to 200 people would cancel reservations at Battista’s nightly during the construction because they couldn’t get to the restaurant, and not even taxicabs or rideshares would drop them off in the area, Markin said.
For every 100 reservations, Markin estimated losses to be about $6,000. The effects of canceled reservations trickled down to his 110 employees, who Markin said in recent months have sometimes begged him for help to pay their rent and other bills.
“With this rolling right into F1 and they said we’re gonna be down to one lane out there on our side of the street, I mean, we’re shocked that something like this could happen,” Markin said. “We don’t see any daylight.”
Wade Bohn, owner of the bright-red Jay’s Market at Flamingo and Koval Lane, is in no better shape, Markin said. Bohn told the Sun in a previous interview that his revenue for 2023 was down $4 million from 2022, when he reported gains of $8.5 million.
For the past two weeks, Gifford has been reaching out to representatives from Caesars, the Westin, Ellis Island and other businesses in the construction corridor. Many details are still unknown, but he said the water district will meet with the contractor, Las Vegas Paving, at the end of February to discuss specifics on the project.
A notice will be sent to nearby establishments and residences with updated plans and a schedule, he added.
But business owners like Markin are at their wits’ end, and have called upon Segerblom — whose County Commission District E includes that part of the Resort Corridor — for support.
“He’s the chairman now, so stand up for your constituents,” Markin said.
Reached Thursday for comment, Segerblom said he only recently was apprised of the situation.
“Honestly, I just learned about the water today so I have to look into that, but I don’t think in the short term there’s anything we can do financially, especially not the water because that’s something that’s being done for everybody,” Segerblom said. “Dealing with Formula One may be a different issue, but as far as doing the water in a way to minimize impact to those businesses, we definitely wanna do that.”
