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Traffic leaving town gathers on U.S. 93 near the Mike O’Callaghan-Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge outside Boulder City on Friday, Feb. 25, 2011.
By Dave Toplikar (contact) 
Friday, April 22, 2011 | 8:35 a.m.
Sun Coverage
Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman is lending his name in support of a proposed Interstate 11 highway that would connect the Las Vegas Valley to Phoenix.
"There are great opportunities in Las Vegas to make tons of money as the result of being a free port," Goodman told reporters at his weekly press conference Thursday at City Hall.
Las Vegas could work in cooperation with shipping ports in Long Beach, Calif., and Punta Colonet in Mexico, which are bringing in goods from China, Goodman said.
The mayor, who touched only briefly on the I-11 project, said he recently listened to a presentation on I-11 to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority by Tom Skancke, the president of the Skancke Co. Ltd. and a transportation consultant to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, and Jacob Snow, manager of the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada.
Skanke also gave a presentation earlier this week to the Henderson City Council, which voiced support of the project.
Skancke and Snow "absolutely say we're missing the boat if we don't build an interstate between Las Vegas and Phoenix," Goodman said. "And that interstate should be connected to all of the western part of the United States."
"The opportunities for commerce are phenomenal," Goodman said.
The interstate would provide for a greater shipping flow of goods from the Southern California ports through the southwest, he said.
"The barges are just lined up in the Pacific, waiting to be unloaded and for transportation by trucks to take them some place," he said.
"The two biggest cities in the United States that do not have an interstate connecting them are Las Vegas and Phoenix," he said. "This discussion really started seriously as a result of the logjam up in Boulder City."
The traffic jam occurred when the Mike O’Callaghan-Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge opened over the Colorado River at Hoover Dam, clogging traffic along two lanes through Boulder City.
Plans for I-11, which would include a bypass around Boulder City, call for it to run northwest from Las Vegas along U.S. 95 toward Reno, Oregon and Washington, and southeast toward Phoenix along U.S. 93. Costs have been estimated in the billions. The recent discussion has been spurred by President Obama's efforts to spur job growth through investment in highway, railways and airports.
"I think that we're really going to concentrate on trying to get funding," Goodman said. "I think it would be a great stimulus project. It would be terrific for Las Vegas and it would be terrific for the rest of the United States.
"Because right now, goods that should be shipped and arrive at places on a timely basis, they're not being shipped because they can't get into a port," he said. "The reason they can't get into a port is because all the docks are full of material."
This makes no sense. How is building a freeway from Las Vegas to Phoenix going to help get ships unloaded faster in Long Beach?
If you want to build a freeway, fine, but don't use this as a justification. These politicians look dumber and dumber everyday.
I think it is a good idea and would be even better if it were built as a toll road. The fee could be variable, pegged at the cost of, say, a gallon or two of fuel to drive the entire length from LV to Phoenix. Drivers would likely save that much fuel using it so it would basically cost them nothing out-of-pocket, but they would save time, aggravation and wear and tear on their vehicles.
The bridge to nowhere at least would have linked the city of Ketchican to the island its international airport was located on. I-11 would link the Mexican and Canadian borders through Las Vegas so that Chinese goods sent to a Chinese built and operated Port in Mexico could move through the Western US and Canada, bypassing the port of Los Angeles/Long Beach, and U.S. and Canadian bulk cargoes, such as grain, coal, and minerals could move from Canada and the Western United States to China through that Chinese built and operated Mexican port, bypassing Canadian and US ports that handle bulk cargoes (eg., Vancouver, Seattle/Tacoma, Portland, Oakland). Northbound traffic from the port would be containers. Southbound traffic would be bulk.
Large amounts of bulk moves most economically over water, economically over rail, and less economically by truck. As fuel prices rise, trucking becomes uneconomic for transporting bulk long distances.
Why is I-11 planned as an interstate highway rather than a canal or a rail lines? A canal is out because water cannot be assured. A highway is not economic. That leaves rail -- plain old ordinary rail -- which can move bulk and containers in a cost-effective manner.
Except possibly for the freeway between Phoenix and Las Vegas, this I-11 would be a highway to nowhere, built at great expense to rival U.S. 50 as the loneliest road in America.
We could surely put our public money to better use than building a highway which will be empty as gasoline and diesel prices continue to rise.
I see both sides of the argument but as a current resident of NYC who IS going to relocated to Las Vegas before the end of the year I must give my stamp of approval to this project. I was out in LV earlier this year and could not believe how cheap the houses were (2K plus sq. ft. built in '03 with two car garage for $70k was too hard to pass up)but I also noticed how practically no or very few living wage jobs were available either.
You see folks, a public works project such as this is the ONLY way to get people back to work in a country that foolishly relied on a service economy to keep people working. We offer services that any computer with basic software can handle. If for whatever reason the computer can't handle it, then the service (or call center, shall we say) will be sent overseas to horribly english speaking customer service reps who will sit there repeating jibberih until you hang up in total frustration. It was for this reason we dumped our Verizon internet service.
How many of you are aware that many calls to Apple Computer go to Mexico? Yes folks, that is another reason why Apple is so popular (and I do admit that I not only love my 27 inch I-Mac but am also a stock holder in Apple) with investors who have no problem driving past the homeless people filling the few good sleeping spots left on the streets of Vegas. I am not one of those investors.
As a real life over the road trucker I can tell you with FULL honestly things are NOT as rosy here in America as politicians would like to claim the economy is returning too. Things are horrific. Imagine having am MBA and the only job offer is part-time at Target. Can't imagine that? I have seen people working in Target stores I deliver too that I had to ask them, at their age (several are 50 plus) what happened and nearly ALL replied with the equivalent of "A job beats NO job." NONE of them are smiling while they are doing what they have to do to keep bus fare in their pockets. Notice I did not say money for gasoline.
Many of you are looking at it the wrong way. It will lead to somewhere, alright. It will lead people to feel that at least this administration in Washington, D.C. government has figured out that putting food in peoples bellies and helping put a roof over their heads might be a better way to go than having everyone lying on their backs at night counting the stars and wondering where they will go to the restroom when they wake up in the morning and their bodily functions kick in.
The last administration (along with the holderovers and borderline insane rhetoric still being preached by MANY) claim(ed) tax cuts were the way to go. I have no doubt the tax cuts were invested in GOOGLE, a company that makes absolutely nothing but its net worth exceeds the combined net worth of ALL of what is left of U.S. manufacturing combined.
We HAVE to have this project and MANY more like it. Case closed. Discussion over.
While the Chinese owned port idea was something I hadn't thought of and is interesting, at this point I'm more worried about the hwyway traffic from Mexico through Las Vegas that his might bring. Unsafe Mexican trucks and truckers are already a problem so they say, not to mention the drugs and violence already finding it's way north from mexico to Phoenix and beyond may present a bigger problem.
Interestingly, the Chinese bought, now own and operate the Port of Las Angeles and the Panama Canal. Wal-Mart had special container ships built just to go back and forth between Los Angeles and China that are too big to go through the Panama Canal. They are if I remember correctly, the largest cargo ships in the world and bigger than US aircraft carriers.
These ships had special engines, fuel management systems, hull designs and hull coatings that allow it to both cut transit time, cruise at relatively high speeds for a super tanker class ship and get very good fuel consumption. They have been widely reported on and numerous articles and photos are available on the net for those interested.
If the bust hadn't happened and the US economy were truly healthy, I would expect Wal-Mart to buy and operate their own airline. They have their own shipping line, their own trucking company, their own banking and finance company, etc. About the only thing they don't do is fly and manufacture goods. As long as they can buy Chinese made goods cheaper than anywhere else I wouldn't expect them to even think about that. They don't like unions so they would stay away from the airlines unless they leased or had a complete in house operation.
TRUTH ALERT:
The Chinese do NOT own, nor operate the Port of Los Angeles. But thanks for the 'birther-like' falsehood.
And as for the conspiracy that Interstate 11 is really for the Mexican's and the Chinese: Simple, withdraw from NAFTA and slap some serious tariffs and restrictions on the merchantilist Chinese as Donald Trump would have us do.
But killing one of the better infrastructure ideas to come along in half a century would be truly stupid. Transportation and commerce in the U.S. would greatly benefit from and I-11 connecting Phoenix-to-Las Vegas-to-Reno/I-80 and up and beyond. The comparisons to the "Bridge to Nowhere" are asinine. And killing off this project JUST TO SHOW THOSE CHINESE WHO'S IN CHARGE! would just as imbecilic an example of cutting off our own noses.
We do not know what value a project like this would bring to Las Vegas. What is certain is the statement by Oscar Goodman, the intent to insert a subpliminal message that he is somehow a visionary leading the path to progress for Las Vegas by agreeing to go forward with this project. His wife is running for mayor, he needs to maintain access and control of the mayor office. He will do and say whatever it takes to position himself and his wife in a favorable light with the voters.
This is an election, anything goes.
"The opportunities for commerce are phenomenal," Goodman said.
The opportunities for ridiculous exaggeration of economic stimulus and political posturing for I-ll are what's really phenomenal.
NOTE to right-wing paranoids: China *DOES NOT* own the Port of Los Angeles (or the Panama Canal). Barrack Obama was born in the United States.
Since when did willful ignorance become its own political party in the U.S?
Sure hope old Oscar's senility and lack of imagination do not infect his wife (the next mayor). Why can't he see that a better result would be obtained if we were to build a new sea-port so that Chinese ships could simply dock at the foot of Fremont Street, just west of the Plaza and the railroad tracks. Oh, you say that the ocean does not abut Las Vegas? Simple, just dig a huge canal from the West Coast. Just think of all the jobs that would create. Wake up, Oscar--10 cars and trucks on a 4-lane US93 does not make a traffic jam!
soo...
something comes into long beach...and it goes to phoenix...THEN comes up to vegas?
how did that monorail work out for you, vegas?
"The comments here about ports show just how little you fools understand about free trade zones, commerce and transportation. "
no, it shows you LEFT wingers buy into anything your liberal messiah, obamao, tells you.
Wow, I'll bet the good ol boys in Boulder City will howl about being bypassed more than what they are now. Of course the average resident in B.C. will love the idea. If a person fails to take the current bypass around the city they find themselves in the narrows of downtown that is really only useful to bicycle traffic. They built planters and stuff in the street, probably in an effort to slow traffic down so much that a person would get bored and stop for coffee or something.