Indian gaming threat heightens LV’s I-15 concerns

Monday, Nov. 23, 1998 | 11:38 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Expanding Interstate 15 between Las Vegas and Los Angeles from four to six lanes is critical to Southern Nevada casinos that want to keep their players longer at the slot machines and table games, a gaming expert says.

Weekend customers from Southern California now leave early from Las Vegas on Sunday because of traffic logjams along the highway.

William N. Thompson, chairman of the Public Administration Department at UNLV, said, "Potentially, we lose four hours of gaming or other expenditure activity from each visitor who must leave town at this busy hour."

The return trip to Los Angeles now takes as long as nine hours, whereas it would take four to six hours if traffic could be brought under control, Thompson said. He said Nevada must take the first step in expanding the highway.

"We will reap economic rewards of millions of extra hours of gaming activity if we do so," Thompson said Friday in prepared testimony delivered to the Technical Advisory Committee of the Economic Forum in Carson City. "We will lose hours of gaming activity until we do so."

The Economic Forum, which meets in full on Dec. 1, is responsible for projecting state tax revenues. State budgets are built on these predictions.

State Transportation Director Tom Stephens questioned Thompson's statement that the trip to Los Angeles from Las Vegas takes nine hours. He also said the improvements suggested by Thompson are under way but they will take some time to complete.

"The process will take five to ten years," Stephens said.

In January, the transportation department will seek bids for the job of expanding I-15 to six lanes from McCarran International Airport to Lake Mead Drive. This 7-mile stretch is anticipated to cost $19 million.

Also, planning is under way to install a truck lane and auxiliary exit lane from Lake Mead Drive to Primm, a distance of 30 miles. The project would include longer exit lanes for southbound traffic at Jean and Primm. Stephens said motorists slow down now approaching these places, delaying other traffic.

Stephens also said environmental studies, which will take several years, will be started soon on a proposed widening to six lanes of I-15 from Lake Mead Drive to Barstow, Calif.

State of Nevada money and casino funds totaling $4 million were contributed to California to improve the interchange at Barstow to eliminate one bottleneck for motorists coming to Las Vegas or returning to Los Angeles. And Stephens said the state is going to contribute $10 million toward the widening of I-15 from Barstow to Victorville, a distance of 29 miles in California. The project will cost $140 million.

The advisory committee met to assess the impact of California voters' passage this month of an Indian gambling expansion measure. Thompson and others said it will probably be tied up in the courts for several years.

State Budget Director Perry Comeaux, chairman of the advisory committee, said there is much uncertainty. "If there is an impact, we don't know the extent of it," he said. He predicted it would be two years or more before an impact can be assessed.

Economist Ted Zuend of the Legislative Counsel Bureau said there are already 100 Indian casinos operating in California. He said it would be a "dubious assumption" that a megaresort would spring up overnight near Sacramento.