Looping Las Vegas
Ambitious Beltway Project Nears Completion

by Tony Illia

The Las Vegas Beltway, Clark County's biggest, most ambitious road project ever, should be finished 12 years ahead of the original schedule.

 

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The $1.7 billion, 51.6-mi., four-lane freeway, also known as Interstate 215, will encircle two-thirds of the Las Vegas Valley. The multiyear project is funded by a 1990 ballot initiative that funnels a portion of sales, fuel and room taxes toward beltway construction. The undertaking started in 1992 and had an expected completion date of 2025, but the program was accelerated in 1996 as a result of the valley's population explosion.

"Under the accelerated program we expect to finish the full freeway by 2013, or 12 years ahead of the original schedule," said Bobby Shelton, assistant director of Clark County's Public Works Department. "We have spent about $1 billion so far on Beltway construction."

The accelerated schedule created a network of two-lane frontage roads as opposed to a full freeway. It enabled county planners to complete the Beltway's $875 million initial footprint in October 2003, averaging about 4.8 miles of new roadway per year for 11 years. The "initial facility" consists of 137 lane miles of pavement, 70 bridge structures, 173 lights, and 10,000 tons of steel.

"These initial facilities are a significant boost for our transportation network," said Clark County Commissioner Bruce Woodbury. "I can't imagine what traffic would be like without the beltway's initial facilities in place. We've made great progress, but clearly we have a lot yet to do."

The freeway was renamed the Bruce Woodbury Beltway in March 2004 to recognize Woodbury's effort and leadership in spearheading the project.

Clark County, the nation's fastest growing region for the last decade, added 6,753 new residents per month in 2005, according to state demographer Jeff Hardcastle. It's forecasted to reach 2.75 million residents by 2024.

Local arterial roads and highways handle about 1.31 million cars and trucks daily, and the Regional Transportation Commission estimates that for every 1,000 new residents, another 750 vehicles join the local roadway network.

The county is now turning its network of Beltway frontage roads into a full divided highway with grade-separated interchanges and cross streets. A voter approved tax-backed ballot initiative in 2002 provides an additional $2.6 billion for transportation improvements, enabling fast-track Beltway building as opposed to pay-as-you project financing.

Last year, the county completed the $10 million Town Center single-point urban interchange, the $2.2 million Alta Drive Bridge, and the Beltway/ I-515 interchange in Henderson. And it currently has five Beltway projects totaling $84.6 million under way.

Las Vegas Paving Corp. has a $29.6 million contract for a 2-mi. beltway widening from Sunset to Buffalo roads, creating four lanes of full freeway facility as well as bridges, interchanges and approaches at Durango and Sunset. The project is expected to finish in August.

Frehner Construction Co. of North Las Vegas has a $42.1 million contract to expand a 2.5-mi. section of beltway between Sunset and Hualapai roads, creating four lanes of full freeway facility along with full interchanges at Russell and Tropicana. The expansion is anticipated to wrap up in September.

And Phoenix-based Meadow Valley Contractors is adding an additional travel lane in each direction, between Pecos and Stephanie Roads, along the Southeastern Beltway, and adding auxiliary lanes between interchanges. The $7.9 million job is anticipated to finish this summer.

The county is placing storm drainage throughout the Beltway alignment and replacing its asphalt frontage roads with concrete paved freeway, which is expected to extend the roadway's lifecycle.

"The essential difference between asphalt and concrete pavement, or flexible and rigid pavements, is the way they distribute the load over the subgrade," said Bill Davenport, spokesman for the American Concrete Pavement Association, a Skokie, Il.,-based trade group. "Rigid pavement, due to concrete's stiffness, tends to distribute the load over a relatively wide area of subgrade. Flexible pavement, however, is weaker and less stiff and does not spread loads as well."

The county is additionally adding $4.3 million worth of new traffic signals along the Northern Beltway at Losee Road, Pecos Road, and Lamb Boulevard, with additional lanes at intersections as well as minor drainage improvements. And it's performing $570,000 worth of investigative asphalt and drainage repair on the Northwestern Beltway in the Lone Mountain area. Both projects are expected to finish in late 2006.

The Public Works Department presently is soliciting construction bids for a Beltway widening from north of Summerlin Parkway to Craig Road, which is expected to finish by 2007. Three more freeway expansions from Charleston to Lake Mead boulevards, Craig Road to El Capitan Way, and Tenaya Way to Decatur Boulevard, will finish in 2009. The Beltway from Decatur north to Lamb Boulevard will reach completion in 2011 followed by El Capitan to Tenaya Way, and Lamb Boulevard to I-15 in 2013.

 
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