Beltway will ease race-day traffic

Tuesday, March 5, 2002 | 9:41 a.m.

Help may be on the horizon for race-day traffic at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Although it took about 45 minutes longer than last year to empty the track's parking lots following Sunday's NASCAR Winston Cup race, LVMS general manager Chris Powell said the scheduled fall completion of the northern loop of the beltway could help ease congestion on I-15 after races.

"We actually took a bit of a step back on exit traffic this year because of the construction on I-15," Powell said. "It narrows from three to two (lanes) down at Charleston and it just backs everything up.

"I'm really looking forward to the day when that (beltway) loop is completed. Traffic is the nature of the beast (at large races), but I still think it'll be better next year and it'll be much better the year after that."

The northern-most segment of the beltway -- from Decatur Boulevard to I-15 just south of Speedway Boulevard -- is scheduled to be competed by the end of October and would help funnel traffic off the southbound lanes of I-15 after races, Powell said.

Sunday's race attracted a record crowd of 137,500 and it took three hours and 45 minutes to clear the parking lots, Powell said. Last year's race drew an estimated 125,000 fans and it took three hours to empty the lots.

"From my experience, our traffic situation is far better than most other such facilities on the circuit -- especially when you consider that, in our case, about 98 percent of the traffic is going (in the same direction)," Powell said. "Still, it's an area that needs improvement."