Commuters can expect relief from beltway battles

J. Craig Anderson

Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2006 | 7:32 a.m.

The daily commute between Summerlin and Henderson via the Las Vegas Beltway and Interstate 215 gives motorists plenty of time to wonder when the lighted intersections and construction delays will finally go away.

Summerlin resident Judy Jenner said the worst part of her day is heading home in the evening, a roughly 20-mile trip that usually takes at least 45 minutes. The biggest delays are at five lighted intersections from Buffalo Drive to Tropicana Avenue, she said.

"That's when it gets really frustrating," said Jenner, Spanish content manager at Vegas.com. "There's nobody moving - it's just light after light."

Fortunately for Jenner and thousands of other commuters, those traffic lights will be gone by the end of September, a Clark County public works official said. Still, keeping up with the growing traffic volume on the beltway will be an ongoing struggle likely to continue for decades.

Fueled by the region's development, traffic at one of the busiest sections along the route, between Decatur Boulevard and the Interstate 15 interchange, has more than tripled since 2000, going from 30,000 average trips per day to 98,500 daily trips in 2004, according to state Transportation Department data.

To make matters worse, the existing route includes a frontage road with traffic signals at Tropicana, Sunset Road, Russell Road, Durango Drive and Buffalo. Lanes are closed frequently because of construction work in those high-traffic areas.

Within six months, however, the gradual replacement of lighted intersections with freeway interchanges at those arterial roads will get things moving again, Clark County Public Works spokesman Bobby Shelton said.

The entire beltway project, which began in 1992, is scheduled to be completed by 2013 - a dozen years ahead of the original goal, he said. Most of the route will be two lanes in each direction, but will have enough room for expansion to five lanes.

Shelton summed up in one word why Clark County is not building more lanes during the freeway's initial construction: "Money."

The project's total cost - not including possible future lane expansions - is estimated at $1.7 billion, with about half the money already spent, Shelton said. The budget comes from development and vehicle registration taxes initially approved by voters in 1990.

Additional lanes would require more money and would not be built unless increased traffic necessitates the expansion, he said.

"Initially, you don't need five lanes in each direction," Shelton said.

Not a beltway in the truest sense, it curves past three-fourths of the Las Vegas metropolitan area from I-15 in North Las Vegas, west past Hualapai Way, then south along the western edge of the valley and past Sunset, where it curves east again, ultimately feeding into U.S. 95 in Henderson.

The freeway's piecemeal construction, while a source of frustration for motorists, has enabled its builders to cover more ground in less time, providing limited congestion relief to a larger population, Shelton said.

The other option, he said, was to build a fully functional freeway one section at a time, which would benefit residents near the completed sections but would be useless to others.

Shelton said he often talks to residents at public meetings who are eager to see the freeway completed sooner - and he invites them to assist in that effort.

"Hey, if you loan me $30 million, I'll build it tomorrow," he said.

J. Craig Anderson can be reached at 259-2320 or at craig@lasvegassun.com.