Los Angeles to Vegas: 275 miles of gridlock

David Strow

Sunday, Sept. 12, 1999 | 9:47 a.m.

BARSTOW, Calif. -- For the Las Vegas Valley, Interstate 15 is a lifeline.

In 1998 about 6.25 million Southern Californians -- 20 percent of the valley's visitor total -- came to Las Vegas by car. Virtually all came along I-15, the only major road connecting Las Vegas and Los Angeles.

Nearly three of every four Southern California visitors come to Las Vegas by car. A mere 10 percent travel by air.

In addition, the interstate is the line by which a remote city with little manufacturing gets most of its vital goods from the outside world.

But for drivers Las Vegas' lifeline is a hassle at best, a death trap at worst. So far this year at least 55 people have died in accidents along I-15 from Barstow, Calif., to Las Vegas.

Of those, 40 people have been killed on the 109-mile stretch of desert interstate between Barstow and Primm at the Nevada border, including two this Labor Day weekend.

The year before, 46 people died and 816 were injured in 943 crashes in California between Barstow and Primm.

In Nevada, 15 fatal accidents and 99 injury accidents occurred between the state line and Henderson between January and June -- more accidents than were reported for all of 1998.

Even for those not involved in accidents, the Mojave Freeway can be a nightmare to negotiate. The 275-mile drive should take a little over four hours at prevailing speed limits, but often takes well over six hours, particularly on Sundays and Mondays after long weekends.

That makes Las Vegas officials nervous, since the last thing they want is to sour the region's most valuable customer base on making the trip.

"Someone once dubbed it the world's largest parking lot," said Manny Cortez, president and chief executive of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. "It creates apprehension for visitors coming to Las Vegas. They're not staying as long as they used to, because they're leaving earlier and earlier to avoid getting caught in the bottleneck."

Since 1990 more than $400 million has been spent by California, Nevada, the federal government and even casino interests to improve the roadway. Suggestions to relieve traffic have gone as far as a plan to construct a magnetic levitation train between Los Angeles and Las Vegas that would zip people through the desert at speeds approaching 300 mph. Estimated cost: $6.8 billion.

California and Nevada officials are desperately trying to keep up with the traffic flow as well. The California Department of Transportation plans a $125 million widening project that, once complete, will help loosen one of the worst bottlenecks on I-15 just south of Barstow. Nevada plans call for eventually widening I-15 to three lanes in both directions from Henderson to the state line.

But efforts to relieve the bottlenecks are far from completion. The CalTrans widening project won't break ground until 2002, and isn't expected to be complete for several years after that. And Nevada's widening program just finished its first stage, with the wider freeway now reaching Sloan.

"Here in California, especially in the desert out here, when you try to do any kind of improvement, you wouldn't believe the amount of paperwork you need to do for environmental impact studies," said Keith Hayes, news director at the Highway Stations, a pair of radio stations in Barstow that air traffic reports for the Mojave Desert freeways. "Traffic seems to get worse every year.

"You have six hours of people sitting in traffic, getting angry, so when they get on the open road they take stupid chances. And that's when accidents happen."

A choked interstate

Along I-15 the Friday before Labor Day, traffic was surprisingly light.

The drive from Las Vegas to Barstow, about 155 miles, took just two and a half hours. It's easy to see why planners put such importance on truck lanes -- in the mountainous country just over the California border, many trucks seem to be struggling to do 45. The lanes keep them confined to the right, ensuring that the traffic keeps flowing.

The Friday traffic was only a shadow of what was to come on this stretch of freeway. As weekends come to an end, southern Californians flood this road on their way back home, and traffic backs up for miles.

An inspection station near the tiny town of Yermo, 10 miles east of Barstow on this route, gives Las Vegas one of its best estimates of motor traffic in and out of the Valley. Since there's little between Yermo and Las Vegas, it's a safe bet that the vast majority of traffic is going between Las Vegas and the L.A. area.

From January to June, 2.6 million cars passed through the Yermo checkpoint, up 12.3 percent from the previous year. That's roughly 14,600 cars per day. On the busiest holiday weekends, locals say the traffic through Yermo runs into the hundreds of thousands.

By comparison, LVCVA officials estimate freeway traffic in and out of Las Vegas from all directions is up 4.3 percent for the year.

To Angelinos used to eternal gridlock, the traffic on the Friday night before Labor Day was hardly worth noticing.

"It's not bad," said Los Angeles resident Edward Kim, on his way for a weekend at Treasure Island. "After (the I-10/I-15 interchange in Ontario, Calif.), it's fine."

Kim said he left Los Angeles at 3 p.m. By the time he reached Barstow, 120 miles away, it was nearing 8 p.m.

"It takes that long to get out of L.A.," he said. "Here, it's no problem."

Still, I-15 was busier than normal, said Larry Adderson, a resident of Tulare, Calif., a town located between Fresno and Bakersfield. Adderson took State Route 58, connecting Bakersfield and Barstow, avoiding the Los Angeles gridlock. He left at 4 p.m., budgeting six hours to the trip.

"Usually the 15 is a lot clearer," he said.

One key may be the lack that night of reckless driving, the biggest contributor to accidents.

"The only idiot I saw was a motorcycle weaving back and forth in traffic," Adderson said. "I thought he was going to wipe out."

Locals didn't share the optimism of Friday travelers. They were holding their breath waiting for the inevitable Sunday crush.

"We're going to get slammed Sunday and Monday," said Lauraline Brown, an employee at Barstow Station Bakers. "It's usually heavier, a lot heavier.

"(On holidays) you can't get through for two hours, because everyone's coming back (from Las Vegas)."

Isam Museitef, owner of Barstow Station Liquor, says the bottlenecks in Barstow are caused by construction at three exits in town, which reduce traffic to single lanes. On heavy days, drivers may spend at least 90 minutes stuck around Barstow, he said, although construction is supposed to be complete within three months.

On Memorial Day, Museitef and the rest of his neighboring businesses found themselves swamped with visitors stopping in this desert town. As for why traffic isn't bad on this particular holiday, Museitef said it's possible some drivers may have soured on the drive after the Memorial Day nightmare. But he also guessed, only half-jokingly, that the back-to-school rush may be to blame.

"Nobody has any money anymore," he said. "They spent it all on school."

The worst Barstow chokepoint is the interchange of I-40 and I-15. Heading north, this interchange doesn't create many problems, since the road widens from two lanes to four.

But with heavy traffic returning home from Las Vegas, the interchange becomes a nightmare heading south. Traffic heading from Las Vegas on I-15 and Laughlin on I-40 must merge from four lanes to two. A trip down on Friday night wasn't anything like it was just two days later -- traffic began backing up on the 15 starting at 9 a.m. Sunday, and didn't begin to clear until 10 p.m. at night.

"It backs up as far as the eye can see," said Donna Kay, an announcer for the Highway Stations. "It goes 5 miles back, even longer."

This point is the next big focus for the California Department of Transportation on I-15. Starting in 2002, CDOT plans to begin widening the interchange, as well as 28 miles of freeway between Barstow and Victorville. The project is expected to cost $125 million, with Nevada contributing $10 million. As an intermediate measure, CDOT will begin adding truck lanes on the stretch in November.

That project is expected to take until at least 2004.

"People out here aren't used to seeing construction, so what I tell them is, 'Get used to seeing construction between here and Vegas for the next five to seven years,"' said Jeanne Garcia, spokeswoman for CalTrans in San Bernardino County. "Our major concern is the southbound traffic, because everyone seems to come home at the same time."

Taking a gamble

One stretch of interstate, between Baker and Primm, presents an entirely different problem.

This stretch is one of the few in the state on which the California Highway Patrol actively uses radar. Much of it is wide open road, sloping downhill, and traffic often begins moving at dangerous speeds. The problem shifts from inconvenience to danger.

"They have to use radar to slow down the speed of traffic, which averages 85 mph," Hayes said. "People are just nuts. You cannot slow down to 70 mph without getting run off the road. They don't allow you any slack on your tail. It's very scary."

Eric Phipps, spokesman for the California Highway Patrol's Inland division, based in San Bernardino, says most of the fatalities on I-15 occur on this stretch, known as the "Baker grade."

"That would be awesome if (traffic flow) only ran 85," Phipps said. "We regularly write up speeders for up to 100 mph on that grade."

Aggressive driving, such as passing on the right shoulder or tailgating, is common here, as drivers take out frustrations from having to wait in traffic earlier.

"They're missing out on their fun (in Las Vegas), as far as they're concerned, and these people (traffic) are stopping them from doing that," Phipps said. "We're trying to remind them that Vegas doesn't close."

Phipps used to work with a medical helicopter service before joining the highway patrol. "We typically loved the days when we had huge amounts of congestion, because you knew we wouldn't have to go out to pick anyone up."

On the Nevada side of the border, most accidents occur within 5 miles of the state line, said Nevada Highway Patrol spokesman Scott Flabi. Most are caused by drivers taking unnecessary risks in heavy congestion, he said.

"We've noticed under severe congested conditions, people try things that really aren't advisable," Flabi said. "They'll pass on the right shoulder, cut through the desert, use the median."

The two states' highway patrols deployed additional units Labor Day weekend, and both plan to begin using aircraft radar patrols more effectively. The fact that only two fatalities were reported on all of I-15 on one of its busiest weekends encourages law enforcement officers that the dangers can be cut by vigilance.

"We did not have a single fatality (on the Nevada side) this weekend, and we're encouraged by that," Flabi said. "This way, people really see more patrol units out on the road, and they think."

Though traffic flowed fairly smoothly over Labor Day, the four-lane road is obviously sensitive to mishaps.

Even accidents that don't block the freeway cause hassles. About 10 p.m. Friday night, traffic backed up for a mile as drivers slowed to look at two tractor-trailers that collided about 10 miles south of Primm. Neither driver was injured, and although both loads have spilled along the freeway's shoulder, traffic was unimpeded.

Barstow, in the meantime, is already preparing for its own kind of Y2K nightmare in four months. Police officers and firefighters have begun reserving rooms in Barstow from Dec. 31 to Jan. 2, because it's expected to be nearly impossible to get out of the town that weekend.

"From (Barstow) to Vegas itself, 15 is going to be a parking lot, 154 miles," Hayes said. "It's going to be a mess."

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