Extra Interstate 15 lanes take shape Monday in this view looking north from the Hacienda Avenue overpass. State highway officials say they won't open any of the five miles' worth of new I-15 lanes in the resort corridor until all lane segments are completed later this year. Photo by Ralph Fountain.

This week, it's Secret Friends' Day! An incognito reader wants to know when they can start cruising new Interstate 15 lanes and another reader who shall remain nameless is asking about streetlights that aren't lighting the street.

And the Road Warrior comes across a road doctor he won't be needing anytime soon.

A reader asks: When will they open up the new lanes on I-15 just north of the Las Vegas Beltway, around Russell Road? It's been done for a month or two. We pass it every day, and I can't imagine there's anything else to do!

There's more to do, but not right there.

First, a little background: Nevada Department of Transportation engineers have been working on a $10 million project to convert breakdown lanes along a 5-mile stretch of I-15 from the southern Beltway to Spring Mountain Road into auxiliary lanes that can be used by traffic entering and exiting the freeway.

That'll hopefully free up more through lanes for traffic trying to get between the southern valley and downtown Las Vegas, a daily commuter crunch for thousands of valley drivers.

Workers have pretty much finished up paving and preparing the southernmost sections of the new lanes around Russell, but still have work to do on lanes further north.

Opening up the complete section before incomplete segments are ready would create a situation where drivers would pull into the new lanes, then quickly have to pull back out as they come upon the stretch still under construction.

"It's not all complete," said Bob McKenzie, a spokesman for the state's highway department. "We don't want to put (auxiliary lane) traffic almost immediately back into (existing lane) traffic."

The ongoing I-15 work around Spring Mountain involves finishing paving and guard rail work, after which striping and other finishing work is expected to take place.

So, when will those lanes open up? Originally, planners hoped the new lanes would all be finished and open by the end of 2006. Obviously, that didn't happen.

Now, there's a new target date: "In the late spring, May or June," McKenzie said.

Other off-road finishing work will then take place before the whole kit and caboodle wraps up sometime in July.

It's likely not the last lane widening work planned for I-15 in the resort corridor over the next few years. The state has a plan to pave over I-15's center median and add two new lanes in each direction from the southern Beltway to Sahara Avenue. Work could start and finish as soon as 2008, but the project has yet to get a formal go-ahead.

"We're still doing the planning on that," McKenzie said.

The estimated price tag of that work is $60 million.

A reader asks: Where St. Louis Avenue turns into Palm Street, between Fremont Street and Charleston Boulevard, the street lights have been out for months. Cars come around at 45 mph, at least, around that corner. Who do I contact about those lights?

For problems with things like street lights, stop lights and street signs, people living in unincorporated Clark County can call the county's traffic operations office at 455-7544. For problems with the road, such as potholes or flooding, complaints can be made to the road maintenance bureau at 455-7540.

In this case, it turns out that thieves apparently yanked several hundred feet of copper wiring from the street lights, a crime that, believe it or not, is becoming increasingly common in the Las Vegas Valley and elsewhere.

"This is one of more than 100 cases we're trying to repair," said Bobby Shelton, a spokesman with the county's public works department.

That backlog means that Shelton can't promise a precise timeline for fixing the latest crippled set of street lights.

"It's going to be repaired as quickly as possible," Shelton said.

Amid skyrocketing prices for copper, such thefts are becoming an epidemic, the Review-Journal reported last year. "It's really rampant across the country," Steve Moyer, chief of security for Nevada Power parent company Sierra Pacific Resources, said last year.

In one particularly audacious theft, in September of 2006 thieves pulled down more than 1,000 feet of copper cable near Boulder City, cutting off long-distance telephone and high-speed Internet service for that community for several days.

Shelton said public agencies, utilities and private developers have been targeted across the valley.

"We try to respond to those situations as quickly as possible, but sometimes, as soon as you replace the copper, the thieves strike again," Shelton said.

Just one more thing to worry about, folks.

Hit 'n' Run: Seen recently on the Nevada vanity plate of a Toyota 4Runner SUV on U.S. Highway 95: "OBGYNMD." OB/GYN doctor. A gynecologist.

Too much information! Can't you just keep it on your business cards?

If you have a question, tip or tirade, call the Road Warrior at 387-2904, or e-mail him at roadwarrior@reviewjournal.com or OSofradzija@reviewjournal.com. Please include your phone number.