Friday, April 3, 1998 | 9:57 a.m.
Commuters can count on car wrecks and fireballs causing delays on the westbound lane of Interstate 215, better known as the Las Vegas Beltway, from Pecos Road to Windmill Lane for the next two weeks.
The producers of Lethal Weapon IV plan to use the roadway to film an elaborate car chase sequence starting next week for the latest installment of the action serial starring Mel Gibson and Danny Glover.
Producers and county officials still had several loose ends to tie up before getting permits issued to begin shooting.
"I think we'll be able to start shooting on Monday," location manager F. Stanley Pearse said.
The inconvenience to commuters means an injection of as much as $3 million into the local economy from the 600-member film crew that will include Gibson and Glover during the second week of shooting, Pearse said.
Once shooting starts, the westbound lane will be closed immediately after the morning rush hour from 9 a.m. until 7 p.m., when traffic slows down from about 1,200 vehicles an hour to 500 vehicles an hour.
The eastbound lane will remain open at all times.
Traffic will detour from the intersection of Pecos and Eastern Avenue north to Windmill Lane, then west to the Windmill on-ramp for I-215, county spokesman Tom Warden said.
"It will be similar to what people used to do when the beltway was under construction," Warden said.
However, now the surface roads are fully improved so commuters won't be running into construction zones, Warden said. Also the lights at the two intersections -- Pecos and Windmill and Pecos and Eastern -- will be adjusted to accommodate the increased traffic flow, he said.
The county is responsible for coordinating the road closings because it has not yet signed the beltway over to the Nevada Department of Transportation, Warden said.
As of Thursday afternoon, the traffic control plan still had to be approved by the city of Henderson and NDOT, Warden said.
The producers also will put up a $500,000 security bond to cover any damage to the beltway, he said.
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