Beltway openings to make difference

Jace Radke

Thursday, Nov. 9, 2000 | 10:40 a.m.

With the newest piece of the planned 53-mile Las Vegas Beltway opening today, and another segment set to open by the end of this month, residents and businesses in northwest Las Vegas are starting to map out newer, faster ways to get around town.

The Clark County Department of Public Works is scheduled today to open the Centennial Parkway overpass, which will eventually carry traffic over U.S. 95 as part of the beltway's curve. On Nov. 28 the next piece to the puzzle will fall into place with the continuation of the beltway from Tropicana to Sahara avenues opening, Public Works spokesman Bobby Shelton said.

"When it opens to Sahara, it will have two lanes of traffic in each direction, and those travel lanes will not be frontage roads, but part of the ultimate facility," Shelton said. "We plan on widening from the four lanes we'll already have in place to create the freeway. We're hoping that will allow us to complete the final project faster, while not having to close down traffic lanes."

While a complete route around the Las Vegas Valley is not scheduled for completion until 2003, and the ultimate freeway facility will not be finished until years after that, some residents say each new segment helps them make their way around Clark County faster.

Jeanette Mersino, who works as an administrator at Alexander Dawson School, 10845 W. Desert Inn Road, says she has heard parents commenting about what it will be like when the beltway opens to Sahara.

"We have families from all over the valley that send their children here, and I think they are excited about being able to take the beltway to Sahara," Mersino said.

George Marshall, who works as a security guard at the private school, will have to wait a couple of years until the beltway will be ready to help his commute.

"It takes me about a half hour to get to work now from over near Martin Luther King Boulevard," Marshall said. "In a couple years when the northern leg is completed it will be real nice."

After opening the roadway up to Sahara, the schedule calls for it to open to Charleston Boulevard by the end of January, to Summerlin Parkway around February and to Cheyenne Avenue by early fall of 2001, Shelton said.

Next on the agenda will be the northern end of the beltway from Interstate 15 to U.S. 95, and once the roadway is completely connected, Public Works will go back and begin upgrading it to freeway status.

Currently the beltway plans call for a six-lane freeway from Gibson Road to Decatur Boulevard, frontage roads from Decatur to West Tropicana and a four-lane divided road from Tropicana to Summerlin Parkway.

Completing the beltway becomes a greater priority with the proposed widening of U.S. 95 looming in the next 10 years.

"We want to minimize the traffic congestion on U.S. 95 and Interstate 15, especially in that corridor that kind of runs through the heart of the city," Shelton said. "It's my opinion that when 95 is widened it's going to be real ugly. We're hoping that the beltway can be an alternate route."