Thursday, Sept. 7, 2023 | 2 a.m.
Formula 1 conflicts
Fdil Ismail, a single mother of four, has worked at the Horseshoe — formerly Bally’s — the past 20 years.
Her daily routine includes dropping her children at school and then taking Flamingo Road to the central Las Vegas Strip to begin her shift. It’s supposed to be a quick commute.
But she finds herself driving around Koval Lane, Tropicana Avenue and Flamingo — all muddled with construction to remake the Strip for the Nov. 16-18 Las Vegas Grand Prix — with hopes of arriving at work on time. She’s leaving the house three hours before her shift and now is unable to bring her kids to school.
“I don’t have time,” Ismail told the Clark County Commission this week. “I have to be two hours early to work and be two hours late to get out. Even though we wanted this Formula One race, it’s difficult taking care of four kids and our life for work. All the people working (on) Las Vegas Boulevard coming into work, it is very difficult for us.”
It will be more difficult on race weekend, when the 3.8-mile track that spans portions of Las Vegas Boulevard will shut down for the event that is projected to bring 105,000 daily spectators and 170,000 visitors over the three days.
But what about the workers who also need to be on the Strip?
Lauren DelFrago, senior director of event operations at Las Vegas Grand Prix, told commissioners there would be mass parking at the Las Vegas Convention Center for workers, who would utilize the monorail to commute to the Strip. The monorail will run continually from 7 a.m. Nov. 16 to 3 a.m. Nov. 20.
Additionally, DelFrago told commissioners that race officials were working on securing additional parking lots for workers. She said she couldn’t yet tell commissioners where those lots would be, or how workers would access the Strip.
A presentation on the company’s community outreach efforts, traffic plan and construction updates turned into commissioners grilling race officials about getting workers on and off the Strip. It’s a massive task to get thousands of workers to their jobs.
Commissioner Marilyn Kirkpatrick, a staunch advocate for Strip workers during race planning, was adamant that race officials find solutions to the traffic-related problems today as well as on the race days.
Between the monorail solution and pedestrian access on the Strip, which will be used mostly for spectators, Kirkpatrick said there needed to be more ways for the hotel workers to make their shifts with little issue.
“The truth is, if you went on the Strip — which I’m happy to take ya — at four o’clock every day, let you sit for two hours in front of one of those venues, you would have a different perspective,” Kirkpatrick said. “My employees — and I say mine, but they’re Clark County’s employees — they cannot walk two miles, then do their jobs for eight hours, stand on the hard floor and then walk two miles to get to their cars.”
DelFrago said the Las Vegas Grand Prix team was still working with properties to “finalize and communicate the details of these plans.”
The organization has weekly meetings with Strip representatives to discuss employee mobility, said Terry Miller, head of construction for the project.
Miller explained that they were working with the hotels to draw up alternative modes of transportation, including a possible shuttle service or rideshare option, for employees throughout the race weekend.
“There’s a lot riding on this, right?” Kirkpatrick said. “One, our brand because our brand means something, that’s why you’re here and we can’t have it go bad either. But two, our employees live here and they’re a part of the community and they can make or break you.”
Roads in the Resort Corridor will begin closing at 5 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday during the race weekend and be fully shuttered by 7 p.m. those days. Closures also will occur on Flamingo Road, Sands Avenue, Koval Lane, Tropicana Avenue and areas of South Las Vegas Boulevard — many of which Strip workers use to access employee parking garages or bus stops.
They will also be closing down portions of the Strip in the early morning of Nov. 14-15 to conduct technology and high-speed tests, DelFrago said.
Workers, wondering how they’ll make it to work and back home during race weekend — when closures akin to New Year’s Eve will take place— are worrying more as the event draws nearer.
“I’m worried that I won’t be able to make it to my shift in time,” said Marcus Lucas, a utility porter at the Mirage who now leaves for work 90 minutes before his shift begins because of the race-related construction, in a statement read to commissioners. “I’m excited about the Formula One race as well as the other events coming to town. This is my hometown and the growth over the years has been amazing, but we have to get to work and back home to our families.”
