Nevada Department of Transportation
The $58 million Interstate 15-Garnet Interchange project in North Las Vegas will begin construction next month
Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2018 | 2 a.m.
The $58 million Interstate 15-Garnet Interchange project in North Las Vegas will begin construction next month.
The project will improve safety and enhance mobility for both Interstate 15 and U.S. Highway 93, officials say. The Nevada Department of Transportation previously sought a Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery grant from the Federal Highway Administration for enhancing the corridor.
A modified diverging diamond interchange are part of the plans, upgrading the existing interchange that was built in 1963.
“With the area zoned for manufacturing and there are already a few industries that are out there working, NDOT can help facilitate having a safe corridor for truck freight to travel,” said Ryan Wheeler, project manager.
Additionally, widening of U.S. Highway 93 from a two-lane highway to a four-lane divided highway for five miles — which will extend from the Garnet Interchange to just north of Apex Power Parkway — is planned.
“There’s a lot of truck freight that travels to Northern Nevada, this project will improve that stretch,” Wheeler said. “The traveling public will have a five-mile stretch of two lanes in each direction, which is dangerous today because smaller vehicles want to pass the slower, larger ones and they face oncoming traffic.”
Other work consists of reconstructing a frontage road along Apex Industrial Park with improved access points and enhanced intersections at Apex Great Basin Way, Apex Power Parkway and Grand Valley Parkway. Part of the project includes prepping Interstate 15 for future a widening to six lanes in the area.
There will also be a two-lane frontage road parallel to U.S. Highway 93 with a partial interchange at Grand Valley Parkway; additionally, it will be designed for future traffic signals at U.S. Highway 93/Apex Great Basin Way.
Ames Construction is the design-build general contractor, with Horrocks Engineers as lead designer. Aesthetic enhancements feature stamped and colored concrete and landscape rock with natural vegetation, plus architectural bridge treatments reflective of the nearby Old Spanish Trail.
The project should be completed by late 2018.
The corridor served as an important alternate route during the 2014 Moapa floods that washed-out and briefly closed a section of Interstate 15.
“This route was a designated alternative route and it’s important that the department has ample alternative routes in the event that the I-15 or similar gets disruptive by an unanticipated event like a major flood,” Wheeler said.
