Construction pushes crash rate along I-15

Dan Kulin

Tuesday, May 20, 2003 | 11:02 a.m.

Accidents on the main thoroughfare between Las Vegas and Southern California have risen dramatically over the last year since construction began to widen the popular route.

Along a 130-mile stretch of Interstate 15 from north of Victorville to the Nevada state line, accidents have increased 46 percent over the last year, according to the California Highway Patrol office in Barstow, which patrols the section.

A 20-mile section north of Baker is the most accident prone, with crashes more than doubling in the first three months of this year over the same period last year, the CHP reports.

"I have friends who drive here for the weekend, and I fear for their safety going back." said Erin Breen, director of the Safe Community Partnership at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

With the travel-busy Memorial Day weekend approaching, the California Highway Patrol plans to beef up patrols on the highway, and police and California Department of Transportation officials are asking motorists to slow down, especially in construction zones.

"I can't imagine what it's going to be like this weekend," Breen said.

Police blame the increase on motorists driving through construction zones as fast and as close to other vehicles as they were before the construction started, California Highway Patrol Officer Todd Weichers, of the Barstow office, said.

But the margin for error declines in construction zones, where often road shoulders are no longer available and lanes are narrower, he said.

"We reduced the speed limit, but people aren't following the speed limit," Weichers said. In general speed limits have been reduced 10 mph or 15 mph in construction zones.

Along the Barstow office's stretch of I-15, a roughly 130-mile stretch from the Nevada line to 15 miles south of Barstow, Calif., motorists run into two highway widening projects. On that section of the highway, 219 accidents occurred during the first three months of 2002. During the same period this year, there were 319 accidents in the same area, a 46 percent increase.

A big piece of the increase came from a 20-mile section of the highway between Baker and Holloran Summit Road to its north, which is undergoing a $44 million widening and saw a 144 percent increase in accidents from the first three months of 2002 to this year, Weichers said.

From January through March of 2002 there were 32 accidents there, compared with 78 accidents during the first three months of this year, he said.

"They've taken away all of the shoulder, with absolutely nowhere to go," Breen said. "If you're not paying attention and slam your brakes, you can't slide anywhere. They end up sliding into the car in front of them."

One of the more noteworthy accidents along that section was a March 9 accident involving a tour bus in which 44 people were hurt.

The numbers of fatal accidents along those sections of the highway were similar in early 2003 and the same period in 2002, suggesting the increase was in minor accidents, he said.

"That would lead me to believe that what is happening is that a slowdown in traffic when a crash happens causes other crashes to happen," Breen said.

The widening project near Baker started March 5 and presents the largest change from the normal travel pattern. Along a roughly 20-mile piece of the highway, traffic has been moved to what was the northbound side of the highway while a slow truck lane is being added to the southbound side of the highway, Transportation Department spokeswoman Holly Kress said.

The changes mean that drivers no longer have paved shoulders, and concrete barriers separate the vehicles headed in opposite directions.

Traffic will eventually be moved to what was the southbound side of the highway while the other side is resurfaced with concrete, Kress said.

This part of the highway should be back to normal by next spring, she said.

Farther south along I-15, drivers run into a less intrusive $120 million widening project between Barstow and Victorville.

The width of the shoulders has been reduced while one lane is being added to each side of the highway.

Work on widening 28 miles of the southbound piece of the highway started in April 2002 and should be finished early next year. Then work on the northbound side of the highway will begin, and should be finished by the end of next year, Kress said.

Roadwork will resume on the Nevada this summer, Nevada Department of Transportation spokesman Bob McKenzie said, when it gets warm enough to start paving at night.

The plan is to repave about 10 miles of I-15 between Sloan and Blue Diamond during the night, so it doesn't interfere with traffic. The work will complete a $46.5 million project begun in 1999 to widen the Nevada side of southbound I-15 to three lanes from two.

Interstate 15 from Las Vegas to Southern California is typically congested on weekend travel days, a condition exacerbated by the construction, Kress said.

With the Memorial Day weekend one of the top five busiest travel periods for the popular route, Kress suggested travelers try to time the start and end of their vacation with off-peak travel times.

Typically Friday and Sunday nights are the busiest times on the highway as tourists come and go from Las Vegas. As many as 41,500 vehicles are on the highway between Las Vegas and Southern California on its busiest days, Kress said.

Breen said the key is to build alternate ways to travel between Los Angeles and Las Vegas, such as a high-speed train.