Las Vegas Grand Prix road work starts next month. What’s different this time?
Formula One Las Vegas Grand Prix road work will begin next month, with officials promising a shorter work schedule than last year, including for the temporary Flamingo Road bridge.
The first road impacts will begin Sept. 8 as crews begin setting up the grand prix’s 3.8-mile street circuit, with wrap up expected to occur before Christmas. Work will begin one week later and will wrap up sooner than last year’s circuit work, with an 11-week work schedule expected for track setup and tear down, according to grand prix officials.
As in years past, the street circuit will mainly consist of Las Vegas Boulevard, Koval Lane and Harmon and Sands avenues. Other roads near the track’s footprint that will see some traffic impacts include Flamingo, Audrie Street and Winnick and Rochelle avenues.
Work will include the installation of track lighting and barriers, temporary vehicular and pedestrian bridges and modifications to the existing pedestrian bridges on the Strip. Work will begin at Harmon and work its way counterclockwise around the track.
Work hours
Most of the work will occur in the overnight hours to minimize traffic impacts, said Lori Nelson-Kraft, grand prix spokeswoman. Circuit work on the Strip will occur between midnight and 9 a.m., Mondays-Fridays. Work on all other roads included in the race’s footprint will take place between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m., Sundays through Fridays.
“You will not see any circuit work occurring over the weekends on public streets,” Nelson-Kraft, said.
The first work will be to install track lighting on Harmon, which will close 2 lanes between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m., according to the track installation schedule.
Track barriers on the Strip won’t be installed until 12 days before race weekend with that work scheduled to begin on Nov. 10. The track barriers on the Strip will be the first to be removed this year, planned for just after Thanksgiving weekend, an adjustment made after race officials spoke with area stakeholders following the 2024 race.
“We recognized that was something that needed to be addressed, and we shortened that window as much as possible,” Nelson-Kraft said.
Flamingo bridge
The temporary two-lane Flamingo vehicular bridge over Koval will return this year and be constructed over five days. That’s down from the seven days last year and the 10 days needed in 2023. Plans call for the Flamingo bridge to be built between 9 p.m. Oct. 12 and Oct. 17, where the Flamingo/Koval intersection will be shut down 24/7.
The temporary Flamingo pedestrian bridge will be built in unison with the vehicular bridge.
An interactive traffic website will launch Monday, similar to the one that was used last year, that allows road users to know when and where circuit work will be occurring day and night. The website will feature the entire work schedule, broken down from pre-race, race week and post-race road impacts.
Clark County’s text update line will also relaunch this year. Those interested in receiving twice-weekly updates on race-related road closures can text “F1LV” to “31996” to join.
Earlier start time
This year’s Las Vegas Grand Prix, planned for Nov. 20-22, is slated to begin two hours earlier than last year’s race, as announced earlier this year, meaning road closures, including the Strip, are planned to begin at 1 p.m. each day racing occurs.
“Which means that two-hour earlier start time will be reflected in the road closures and the roads reopening,” Nelson-Kraft said. “It takes us about two hours (to shut the roads down). … But on the back end, the roads will reopen two hours sooner (than last year).”
Contact Mick Akers at makers@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2920. Follow @mickakers on X.
