U.S. 95 will be shut down at Rainbow

Stephen Curran

Thursday, Nov. 18, 2004 | 9:41 a.m.

One of the Las Vegas Valley's busiest stretches of highway will be closed this weekend as crews prepare to demolish an old bridge structure to make way for a new interchange on U.S. 95.

The $42 million project at Rainbow Boulevard is part of the larger U.S. 95 widening project that the state Transportation Department hopes will eventually widen the freeway from six lanes to 10.

The freeway at Rainbow will be closed in each direction starting at 10 p.m. Friday and is expected to re-open for traffic at 5 a.m. Monday. Traffic trying to exit at either Summerlin Parkway or Rainbow Boulevard will be rerouted along Alta Drive, Jones Boulevard and Washington Avenue, Bob McKenzie, a spokesman for the Transportation Department, said.

That stretch of U.S. 95 sees between 250,000 and 300,000 cars a day, McKenzie said, a number that is expected to dramatically decrease over the weekend.

Similar large-scale closures have been held at U.S. 95 at Decatur and Torrey Pines boulevards. In those cases, the roads re-opened smoothly and on time, he said.

"We're hoping that people will find alternate routes to avoid the construction," McKenzie said. "We've done road closures, and each time they've been extremely successful and we've gotten them open before the Monday morning deadline."

The widening project was stalled after a July ruling by a U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals that allowed the Sierra Club to delay the project until the court hears its appeal to shut down the expansion.

The Sierra Club had filed a lawsuit in 2002 saying the Federal Highway Administration and other agencies failed to adequately address environmental and health impacts from the $370 million project.

The Regional Transportation Commission in October filed an amicus, or "friend of the court," brief, joining the Highway Administration in its suit against the environmental advocacy group.

The expansion had been expected to open in late 2006. A three-judge panel is expected to make a decision on the appeal next month.