No lights on U.S. 95?

Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2009 | 2 a.m.

Mr. Sun,

Why does an eight-mile stretch of U.S. 95 remain virtually without lights in the year of our Lord 2009? From about three-quarters of a mile north of Boulder Highway all the way to Henderson, the highway has virtually no lights. Doesn’t the federal government or anyone else require lighting on highways in urban areas, for safety reasons?

•••

Mr. Sun is more than happy to shed some light on that dark stretch of U.S. 95.

The explanation from the Nevada Department of Transportation goes like this: When U.S. 95 was completed in the 1990s it was rated, based on traffic and population, as a “rural-suburban” freeway. On such routes only major interchanges have lighting — Boulder Highway, Flamingo, Tropicana, Russell, Sunset, etc.

Had U.S. 95 been rated as an “urban” route — these designations start sounding like record company marketing categories after a while — it would have been equipped with the towering high-mast lighting that illuminates the Las Vegas Valley’s newest freeways.

Fifteen years of growth has transportation officials looking at widening U.S. 95 from the Spaghetti Bowl to Foothills Drive. If, or when, that project is built, it will include better and more lighting.