State panel approves record $450 million in highway projects

Wednesday, Oct. 28, 1998 | 2:58 a.m.

Major Las Vegas-area projects approved Tuesday by the panel include $39 million to improve the Interstate 15-Sahara Avenue interchange and to add a northbound lane between Sahara and Charleston Boulevard. Another $41 million would go to widen I-15 between Las Vegas and Primm and to expand I-15 to six lanes between Interstate 215 and Lake Mead Drive.

While the money will be authorized for spending in 1999, state transportation officials said it actually will be spent over several years as projects are designed and finished.

"Clark County will continue to be given priority on new capacity projects," Transportation Director Tom Stephens said. "Eighty percent of the money goes to Clark County. That's where the main congestion is. It is going to be a blockbuster year."

Approval came with little discussion from members of the Transportation Board, led by Gov. Bob Miller. All of the projects have been discussed in previous meetings of the board.

The board previously agreed to spend $10 million of state highway funds for widening of the I-15 freeway within California. The expenditure formally was authorized Tuesday. Tourism and gaming officials want the freeway widened because it has become a bottleneck to slow the flow of visitors.

The board also revised 26-year-old highway beautification regulations and approved 64 new sites for billboards along freeways in unincorporated Clark County.

Approval came despite an initial move by Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa to delay passage of the regulation at least temporarily.

She said she thought 64 new billboard sites were "quite a few." And she said the state Transportation Department should re-examine the fees it charges for billboard permits.

But her move to delay the regulation received no backing from other members of the board.