Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

transportation:

I-15 blasting, closures end ahead of schedule

Interstate 15 blasting

Crews blast rock on I-15 in California near the Nevada border as part of the widening of the freeway. Launch slideshow »

I-15 blasting

There’s good news for motorists traveling between Las Vegas and California on Interstate 15: The road will no longer be closed for blasting.

The California Department of Transportation announced at the beginning of the month that part of the interstate near the Nevada border would be closed twice a week for 10 weeks so crews could blast away rock.

But CalTrans got the surprising news Thursday from its contractor on the project, Las Vegas Paving, that just two weeks of the blasting was enough.

After drilling into the rock to prepare for the blasting, engineers discovered that some of the rock was softer than they expected and can be mechanically removed, eliminating the need for blasting, department spokesman Darin Cook said.

“We got lucky,” Cook said.

The blasting would send rocks and debris across the road, required the closure of northbound lanes for an hour and a half, and the southbound lanes for half an hour.

While the blasts were conducted on Tuesday and Thursday mornings when traffic is light, the closures were still an inconvenience for motorists.

There will still be lane restrictions as work continues on the interstate, but there should not be any closures of the whole road, Cook said.

CalTrans is widening about 12 miles of the interstate to add a new northbound truck-descending lane in the area around Mountain Pass.

The $91 million project also includes upgrades to the southbound truck-climbing lane and other improvements in the area.

The southbound lanes saw closures during one day a week for three months earlier this year for similar blasting work.

Cook said construction is on track to finish early -- sometime in the summer of next year instead of the fall as was initially expected.

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