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Boulder Highway changes aim to decrease pedestrian deaths

Boulder Highway looks simultaneously like what it once was — the biggest, fastest route out of town heading southeast — and what it is now: a commercial road linking homes and commercial spaces. That odd mix contributed to 14 fatalities in 2015 alone. The Nevada Department of Transportation hopes to implement some changes to make the road less deadly.

“Every death and serious injury on Nevada roads is a tragedy,” said Nevada Department of Transportation spokesman Tony Illia. “We have consequently identified several areas along the Boulder Highway corridor for pedestrian and motorist improvements.”

Boulder Highway was built in 1931 as a quick route to the Boulder Dam site. It was later widened to be U.S. Highway 93 and 95, the main route out of town to the southeast. By 1995, the current U.S. 93/95 freeway had completely replaced the surface road of Boulder Highway, leaving a straight, 10 lane-wide road in a section of town where economics make for more pedestrians than many other parts of the valley. Eight of the 14 deaths last year were pedestrians.

“All of those were caused by pedestrian error; that is, jaywalking,” said Metropolitan Police Department spokesman Larry Hatfield. “The engineers will look at those stretches of road and figure out what to do with it.”

Ilia indicated that the location of the fatal pedestrian accidents would be a major factor in determining where to make changes.

“We’re doing a traffic safety audit for the entire corridor to identify trouble areas,” Illia said. “Maybe there wasn’t enough width in the pocket turn lane. Maybe you can’t see well enough when you turn right. We’ll sort through it all and work out what needs to be done. We’re looking at Danish-offset median islands. The first one is set to be installed at Boulder Highway and Sun Valley Drive, near the Eastside Cannery, by the end of the year.”

Danish-offset median islands take a right angle turn when the pedestrian reaches the center dividing island between the two directions of traffic. This forces the pedestrian to look directly at the oncoming traffic before crossing the rest of the road.

“We’re still in the design phase, so the actual location of the new crossings isn’t determined yet,” Ilia said. “Sometimes the engineers combine some of the intersection improvements into one.”

There is one pedestrian bridge crossing Boulder Highway, and it’s likely to remain the only one. The Danish-offset median islands have the advantage of being significantly less expensive to create and quicker to install. Ilia hopes that all of the crossings will be in place by the end of 2017.

“There were some complications because the road goes through several jurisdictions,” Ilia said. “It’s in the city of Las Vegas, Clark County and Henderson, but everyone is on board.”

Most of the changes are set to take place between Galleria Drive and Charleston Boulevard, where the majority of the Boulder Highway congestion issues are and the pedestrian and automotive conflicts are more frequent.

“It’s a big, wide road with a large capacity and a lot of development that has sprouted up around it after the road had been built and defined,” Ilia said. “One of the things we’re looking to do as part of the corridor improvements is to actually narrow down the road, add wide sidewalks, slow down the speed limits, add bike lanes and things like that.”

The first change slated to take place is to drop the speed limit from 55 to 45 mph for 2 miles starting at Galleria Drive heading north, ending midway between Tropicana Avenue and Russell Road. That change is expected around the end of February.

— To reach East Valley View reporter F. Andrew Taylor, email ataylor@viewnews.com or call 702-380-4532.

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