Rio’s link to Strip begins to take shape

Adrienne Packer

Wednesday, July 21, 1999 | 10:39 a.m.

The link the Rio hotel-casino has desperately needed to make it a member of the world-famed Las Vegas resort corridor is finally under way.

Kimley-Horn and Associates representative Ken Ackeret announced Tuesday that his company is helping to design a sidewalk and pedestrian bridge along Flamingo Road that will link the Rio to the Las Vegas Strip.

For years pedestrians have fought traffic and dodged cars on Interstate 15 on-ramps and off-ramps to make their way over to the popular Rio. Last year, the hotel-casino embarked on a project with the Nevada Department of Transportation.

"With 70,000 cars a day on Flamingo, everybody is in agreement that something must be done," Ackeret told board members on Tuesday.

The Rio is expected to spend $900,000 to build a pedestrian bridge across the southbound Interstate 15 off-ramp that runs parallel to Rio Drive. NDOT will spend $400,000 improving sidewalks that will guide tourists along Flamingo from the Strip across the overpass and to the bridge.

Ackeret made his presentation to the county Tuesday so the Rio and NDOT can begin working with the Public Works Department, which is in the final stages of designing Frank Sinatra Drive.

Frank Sinatra Drive will be a frontage road to Interstate 15. It will stretch from Russell Road to Spring Mountain Road. The street, which is expected to be used primarily by hotel employees, will be routed through tunnels under Tropicana Avenue and Flamingo.

Public Works spokesman Bobby Shelton said Tuesday that the county is still negotiating land acquisition agreements with property owners. He said failure to quickly reach agreements will delay the project two to three years. Frank Sinatra Drive was scheduled to be completed by 2000.

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