Key highway interchange is celebrated

Stephen Curran

Wednesday, May 25, 2005 | 9:42 a.m.

A key northwest interchange was left in a traffic jam of its own for more than three years as crews scrambled to finish necessary improvements to keep traffic on nearby roads flowing, Clark County Public Works officials said.

The ramp connecting the Las Vegas Beltway to U.S. 95 in northwest Las Vegas, now open for almost a month, consolidates what had been a frustrating detour along several frontage roads to southbound U.S. 95 near Centennial Centre Drive.

Beltway drivers still must stop at a traffic light before merging onto U.S. 95, but they no longer must navigate the labyrinth of surface streets to reach an existing on-ramp.

Most of the ramp project was completed almost two years ago, but because planners were left waiting for money to make improvements to connecting roads, the ramp -- part of a $24 million project to upgrade surrounding roads -- stood vacant for almost two years as those improvements were made, Bobby Shelton, a spokesman for Clark County Public Works, said.

"It was frustrating on our part to not open it for those couple years," he said. "It was kind of like a ramp to nowhere."

The ramp now connects two busy roads in the rapidly growing area, making up for a lengthy detour between Durango Drive and El Capitan Way motorists once faced, Shelton said.

The southbound beltway/U.S. 95 ramp quietly opened to traffic in late April, but officials from Public Works and the Regional Transportation Commission gathered for a belated ceremony Tuesday marking the new ramp's opening, Shelton said.

Traffic merging onto southbound U.S. 95 was briefly stopped as officials including outgoing Las Vegas Councilman Michael Mack, Clark County Commissioner Tom Collins and Rudy Malfabon, deputy director of the state Transportation Department, cut a ceremonial ribbon across the ramp.

Engineers began work on the ramp in August 2002, well before workers began the $967,000 in necessary improvements to Centennial Centre that stalled progress on the new ramp, Shelton said.

Earlier plans called for the ramp to be complete before the widening of Centennial Centre was to begin, although it was later determined the road needed to be expanded first.

"We thought (at the time) it was better to build the ramp first," Shelton said. "Our intent was to connect it (to the beltway), but we thought it was better to make those improvements."

The improvements have meant a surge in business for Christine Harper, who manages a HoneyBaked Ham Co. store in the 8400 block of Centennial Parkway. Since that street was widened, the increase in cars has also translated to a surge in foot traffic, she said.

"There's a lot more access to us now," Harper said. "It was a good thing. It had to be done."

But it's also meant a slight increase in travel time for the store's team of delivery drivers, who once relied on a through road traveling under U.S. 95 to reach many of their customers. That road was knocked out to make way for the new ramp, meaning they must now travel to Ann Road, the nearest through street, to reach the schools they service on the east side of the freeway, Harper said.

"For us, in terms of getting to our schools, it's harder," Harper said. "But if you had never known (about the old road), you wouldn't be complaining."

That portion of the beltway is among the last expected to be finished before the entire project opens in 2013, at which time the newly opened ramp will be torn down to make way for a full freeway-to-freeway interchange, Shelton said.

Officials in December opened the latest stretch of the beltway between Decatur Boulevard and Buffalo Drive in the southwest. Those improvements transformed what was a slow-moving four-lane road dotted with traffic lights to a faster-moving freeway.

Crews are now working to improve the beltway from Buffalo to Sunset Road and from Sunset north to Hualapai Way, two pieces expected to open as a full freeway late next year. Once complete, they will allow drivers to continue uninterrupted from Far Hills Avenue in Summerlin south and then east to the interchange at U.S. 95 in Henderson, Shelton said.

So far, both those projects are on schedule, Shelton said.