Plan approved for pedestrian bridges at Strip, Flamingo

Jeff Schweers

Wednesday, May 20, 1998 | 9:54 a.m.

More than three years after deciding to build overhead pedestrian crossings at Flamingo Road and the Las Vegas Strip, the Clark County Commission has finally committed to a plan that bridges the gap between competing property owners.

Tuesday the commission made good on a promise made last month that it would dictate the design and location of the east and north bridges if the Flamingo Hilton and Barbary Coast hotel-casinos couldn't reach a compromise.

After months of negotiations failed to produce such a compromise between the two hotel-casinos, which share the northeast corner of the intersection, the board voted 6-1 to immediately push ahead with its own proposal.

Commissioner Lorraine Hunt voted against the motion made by Commissioner Bruce Woodbury to direct staff to continue working on a design it had begun almost six months ago that was 35 percent complete and cost $300,000.

"We may be forced to simply go forward with the Public Works proposal," Woodbury said. "Even if it costs a little more, we'll save money on south and west bridges."

Saying she didn't "want any ugly bridges," Hunt opposed the motion because she didn't think the county's bridges would have the same aesthetic look as the Bellagio hotel-casino bridges.

Woodbury said the county's bridges should be as close as possible in design to the Bellagio bridges and that his motion still would allow both sides to talk and try to reach an alternative.

The Public Works Department also will have to work out right-of-way agreements for touchdowns on the sidewalks of Caesars and Bally's hotel-casinos.

Commissioner Mary Kincaid said she had no problem with the Public Works proposal, but asked that county engineers look at placing the walkways where they provide the greatest public benefit.

"This is a dangerous intersection, and we need to get pedestrians off the street," Kincaid said.

Commissioner Myrna Williams didn't expect the motion would make everybody happy, but said it seemed like the fairest solution to all parties.

Mike Leavitt, a lawyer for the Barbary Coast, said he was pleased with the commission's decision.

"It's something we can live with," Hilton lawyer Greg Jensen said.

The two bridges are estimated to cost $8 million, Public Works Director Marty Manning said. If the county creates a special improvement district, it would pay half the cost and Strip property owners would pay the balance through a tax increase, Manning said.

However, he said, he could prepare a special improvement district in which the property owners would pay all the costs. That would have to be approved by the property owners.

The decision advances toward completion the four-bridge circuit connecting the properties at the intersection. The Bellagio had already made a deal with Caesars and Bally's to build the south and west bridges, which the commission approved last December. Those bridges are due to open in September, in conjunction with the opening of the Bellagio on the southwest corner of the intersection.

Manning said construction could start on the other two bridges in three to four months.

A different kind of pedestrian crossing could be under construction by now if Caesars hadn't balked on an agreement to build a $23 million tunnel system three years ago.

"Had that agreement been executed, then we'd already be under construction for four tunnels," Manning said.

After those negotiations failed, and Bellagio couldn't work out a single tunnel agreement with Bally's, it opted for the bridges. When the commissioners approved the Bellagio bridge deal, they also thought they had an agreement with the Barbary Coast and Flamingo Hilton to participate in the construction of the north and east bridges.

County engineers and designers had begun working on the bridge designs, but in March the Flamingo balked when it thought the county was proposing a barricade of a mid-block walkway responsible for 35 percent of the hotel-casino's foot traffic.

Flamingo Hilton officials offered to design and build its own bridge across the Strip and pay for it themselves. That was followed by a counterproposal from the Barbary Coast to build a walkway running through the second floor of its hotel and linking it to the Bally's and Caesars' corners.

"I certainly wouldn't want to flip a coin on this issue," Hunt said. "It's not fair to the Bellagio and the public-safety issue."