Southwest beltway to speed up with offramp openings

Stephen Curran

Wednesday, March 30, 2005 | 9:10 a.m.

Traffic should begin moving more quickly Friday along a southwestern section of the Las Vegas Beltway after a multi-day closure of a key southwest Las Vegas offramp slowed vehicles to a crawl during rush hours earlier this week, Clark County Public Works representatives said.

Cars on the Las Vegas Beltway during commute hours Tuesday were at times backed up for almost five miles, with some reports of six- or seven-mile backups. The traffic jams were caused by crews working to expand the Decatur Boulevard offramp.

Work began Tuesday morning on the project and the offramp is expected to reopen to drivers Friday morning, Bobby Shelton, a spokesman for county public works, said.

Shelton said the closure likely caused "a few minutes delay" for commuters, although another offramp at Jones Boulevard that had been closed for two weeks re-opened Tuesday.

"Any time you have lane restrictions and an extended closure, we fully anticipate there to be some delays," he said. "Not everyone reads the newspaper or sees the television news (to adjust their routes)."

At 7:30 this morning, traffic on the southwest valley had begun to increase, causing backups of almost a mile at many of the lights. The delays did not appear to be out of the ordinary for this type of project, he said.

The project was part of a larger set of improvements planned for that stretch of I-215, as it is known in its complted parts, which opened in December as a traditional freeway between Decatur Boulevard and Buffalo Drive.

A string of improvements including widening and extending exiting cross-streets to that 2.8-mile route is expected to wrap up in the next two months, Shelton said.

Construction of the next two pieces, which will begin from Buffalo Drive to West Sunset Road and from Sunset to Hualapai Way, began last month and should be finished by late 2006, Shelton said.

The entire $655 million beltway project will form a half-circle around the western part of the valley and pass U.S. 95 before connecting with I-15 again north of Nellis Air Force Base.

Planners estimate it will be completed by 2013.