Jam sessions

Wednesday, Nov. 24, 1999 | 11:02 a.m.

The worst

The three Las Vegas intersections that made the list of worst freeway interchanges, based on the number of hours that congestion delays drivers:

Interstate 15 at Sahara Avenue, 203,990 vehicles per day.

U.S. 95 at I-15, the Spaghetti Bowl, 166,535 vehicles per day.

State Highway 146, also known as Lake Mead Drive, at U.S. 95, 160,495 vehicles per day.

The good news is that traffic congestion isn't as bad in Las Vegas as it is in other parts of the country, particularly in Southern California.

The bad news is that three highway interchanges in the Las Vegas Valley made the list of 167 clogged highways in a new national study, and that traffic congestion is likely to get worse.

The American Highway Users Alliance released the study Tuesday. Three highway interchanges were identified as "bottlenecks" or "chokepoints" that become highly congested with all kinds of traffic. Interstate 15 at Sahara Avenue was 31st worst in the study; the Spaghetti Bowl, or U.S. 95 at Interstate 15, was 118th; and Lake Mead Drive at U.S. 95 in Henderson was 134th.

Although Las Vegas' three congested interchanges rank well down the list of problem highway spots, that's not necessarily cause for happiness.

"Saying you're not as bad as other places is sort of a relative term," alliance spokesman Bill Buff said. "The fact that Las Vegas didn't jump into the top 18 is certainly good news for you guys, but you still have some very significant chokepoints."

To get on the list at all, people had to waste at least 700,000 hours a year in traffic back-ups on the highways and highway on-ramps, Buff said.

Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., suffer from the most serious congestion, each with four interchanges listed among the 18 worst. Atlanta had three of the top 18.

Because Nevada's highway bottlenecks didn't get in the top 18, those highway interchanges weren't studied in detail.

The study also recommended steps to relieve the traffic congestion.

Additional traffic lanes and other improvements would reduce rush-hour delays an average of 40 minutes a day for each commuter and prevent more than 287,000 accidents, according to the study. Data came from the Federal Highway Administration and state transportation departments.

Relieving congestion also would cut the amount of greenhouse gases and other tailpipe pollutants released into the air. Freeway congestion wastes 6.7 billion gallons of gas annually, the report states.

In addition to building traffic lanes, the alliance advocates use of timing lights to control the flow of vehicles onto freeways, moveable barriers that add lanes during peak travel times and other devices.

All three bottlenecks in Las Vegas -- the only ones identified in the state -- are targets of ongoing projects by the county or Nevada Department of Transportation for relief.

At I-15 and Sahara Avenue, the state plans to begin construction on the northbound on-ramp, advertising for bidders after the first of the year, said Gene Weight, NDOT district engineer. The project, estimated to cost $35 million, will essentially add one full lane between Sahara and Charleston Boulevard, Weight said.

Work on the infamous Spaghetti Bowl, where I-15 and U.S. 95 meet, should be complete in June, Weight said.

And the department is set to soon begin highway widening work at Lake Mead Drive, which is also State Highway 146, and U.S. 95, he said. Weight said further development at U.S. 95 and Lake Mead Drive could require expansion of the highway to six to eight lanes. The highway now is mostly two lanes, he said.

But both Buff and Weight warned that the breakneck pace of development in the Las Vegas Valley means that improvements are likely to be temporary, with new bottlenecks springing up to replace those that are corrected.

Many of the 60,000 new residents moving to the Las Vegas region each year are moving to the urban perimeter, requiring more roads and highways to bring them into the city center.

"You're putting more people on the ground with cars who need to go from one place to another," Phillip Shinbein, Clark County transportation planner, said. "As the population grows the traffic demand grows, and the demand always grows faster than the supply."

He said U.S. 95 in the northwest part of the Las Vegas Valley is likely to be a major bottleneck in the future, as the huge Summerlin master planned community nears its capacity.

"In 10 years, with Summerlin buildout, and eight- or 10-mile stretch of 95 will basically be untraversable" at peak hours, he warned. Improvements in the Las Vegas Beltway might alleviate the congestion, but it will still be a problem, Shinbein said.

News that Las Vegas appeared on yet another list of cities plagued by traffic congestion didn't surprise Mike Point, operations manager for Mac's Delivery Service in Las Vegas.

"It's an ongoing problem that I don't see solved any time soon with the growth we have," said Point, who's been driving and dispatching drivers for 17 years with the company.

Point said he used to drive from Henderson to U.S. 95 at Rancho in 15 minutes. That drive now takes 45 minutes to an hour.

And although he welcomes the long-term benefits of highway expansion, Point said the construction work, at least in the short term, can be a bigger headache.

He said he'd like traffic engineers to factor in the valley's explosive growth when designing highways.

"The people who planned the highway system didn't do a very good job in my opinion," Point said. Among the alliance members are the American Trucking Association, the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, the National Association of Independent Insurers and the National Association of Truck Stop Owners.

Buff said the alliance also includes the American Automobile Association, making the nonprofit organization one of the few that represents both commercial and private vehicle owners.

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