Bridge demolition forces closure of U.S. 95

Friday, June 1, 2001 | 10:11 a.m.

One of Nevada's busiest highways will close this weekend, part of an effort to build a wider, faster road through Las Vegas.

U.S. 95 will be closed between Jones and Rainbow boulevards tonight as work crews begin demolishing the Torrey Pines Drive bridge over the highway, Nevada Department of Transportation officials announced.

NDOT will close both sides of the highway beginning at 9 p.m. Agency officials said in a press release that the closure will continue until 5 a.m. Monday, but NDOT spokesman Robert Mckenzie said crews will try to open the highway as soon as possible -- even as early as Saturday.

The agency's contractors are demolishing the Torrey Pines overpass as part of a $350 million effort to widen U.S. 95 in western Las Vegas. Workers will widen the four and six-lane road from Martin Luther King Boulevard to Rainbow to 10 lanes. From Summerlin Parkway to Cheyenne Avenue the road will be widened from four to six lanes.

Work is scheduled to finish in 2006, although environmentalists with the national and local Sierra Club have threatened a lawsuit to stop the project.

Mckenzie said the demolition of the Torrey Pines bridge would be the largest ever road-destruction effort in Clark County, but it won't be the last.

"This is the first of several closures over the year," he said.

The Torrey Pines overpass was closed to motor vehicle traffic April 18 as workers prepared for the demolition, but the road remained open for pedestrians and bicycles.

Only one lane of the overpass is slated for demolition this weekend. Mckenzie said NDOT will reopen the other lane for foot and bike traffic as soon as possible.

Mckenzie said the closure is scheduled for the weekend so that the inconvenience to weekday commuters is minimized. U.S. 95 is usually filled to or above the designed capacity during rush hours, which is why state and federal road planners are widening the highway.

"We realize it's going to impact traffic, but we're trying to do it with as little inconvenience as possible," Mckenzie said.