I-15 traffic may keep California drivers away from Las Vegas

Tourism officials claim traffic congestion on Interstate 15 is threatening Las Vegas' economy.

What used to be a four-hour trip between Southern California and Las Vegas can now take as long as nine hours, particularly on three-day weekends.

About 5 million vehicles, carrying 30 percent of Las Vegas' visitors, cross the state line between California and Nevada annually, according to officials at the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.

The board of trustees for the authority heard a 45-minute presentation Tuesday from Tom Skancke on behalf of the Nevada Resort Association about the future of I-15 and its impact on tourism here.

Although part of the solution is funding highway improvements such as expanding the number of lanes, several board members targeted truck traffic, which accounts for 20 percent to 25 percent of vehicles on the highway.

Some local officials asked about alternative corridors for truck routes, especially for trucks passing through Las Vegas to Salt Lake City and destinations beyond. Others suggested legislating the hours that trucks would be allowed to travel the road.

Skancke said the highway would require $1 billion in improvements over the next 20 years to keep pace with anticipated traffic growth, primarily to widen it to six lanes from Primm, Nev., to Barstow, Calif.

"Everybody realizes the importance of I-15," he said. "It's critical to the lifeline of this city, but it's also critical to the whole region.

"On a three-day weekend, it's almost total gridlock from Victorville to the Inland Empire and on into the Los Angeles Basin. What do we do? We just keep working on this project."

Skancke said that in the last 13 years the Nevada Resort Association has been able to contribute almost $90 million to pay for road improvements along I-15, including an interchange with I-40 near Barstow and a widening project between Barstow and Victorville, Calif.

Through a unique bistate agreement between California and Nevada, and with help from the Federal Demonstration Funds, the actual funds secured totaled $320 million, Skancke said.

Jeanne Garcia, public affairs officer for the California Department of Transportation in San Bernardino, said several projects are in the works to ease the congestion, including three miles of truck-climbing lanes southbound between Barstow and Victorville.

She also said the department would eventually like to put "high-occupancy vehicle" lanes, similar to the diamond lanes in Los Angeles for carpoolers, on each side of I-15.

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