Work begins on northwestern Beltway segment

Those large gravel pits west of the 215 Beltway in northwest Las Vegas will have a greater purpose in the years ahead and motorists should like it.

Work began Tuesday on 3 new miles of the three-quarter loop around the valley and most of those new miles will be built in those pits.

Clark County Commissioner Larry Brown, who also serves as chairman of the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada, kicked off the three-year, $92 million project with a groundbreaking event.

The project, contracted to Las Vegas Paving, also includes new interchange exits at Lone Mountain and Ann roads, major flood control improvements, an extension of the western Beltway bicycle-pedestrian trail, a new bridge to carry Centennial Parkway traffic over the Beltway as well as bringing the roadway to full freeway standards.

When completed, 45 of the Beltway's 52 miles will be completed with only the northeastern end and its tie-in to Interstate 15 and the Centennial Bowl freeway interchange with U.S. Highway 95 unfinished.

"The 215 Beltway is a critically important road used by hundreds of thousands of residents every day to get to work and school," said Brown, whose district includes the construction zone. "This project will take a major piece of the Beltway that still has traffic signals and turn it into a traditional divided highway. This will reduce traffic congestion and make driving on the Beltway safer and easier."

Maybe the best news of all for commuters is that traffic won't be disrupted at least into mid-2016 because most of the construction work will occur in those old gravel pits west of the existing roadway where traffic lights now mark the intersections of the Beltway with Lone Mountain and Ann.

Brown said disruptions will occur much later in the project when the existing freeway is tied into the new road.

The project will provide about 1,000 jobs over the life of the construction program, expected to end in late 2018.

The effort, officially called the "215 Beltway Craig Road to Hualapai Way" project, is entirely in Brown's County Commission district.

Brown said because the project came in below initial engineering estimates, additional funds will be dedicated to improvements on Lone Mountain and Ann roads between the new Beltway interchanges and U.S. 95.

The funding of the project is a rarity in today's roadway construction environment in that it isn't a part of the county's fuel-revenue indexing program.

The indexing program has been responsible for providing bonding for 109 road projects since its inception in January 2014. But Brown said because of the existence of the indexing program, the county was able to devote less to smaller projects and scrape together the transportation funds necessary for the Beltway project.

Contact Richard N. Velotta at rvelotta@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893. Find him on Twitter: @RickVelotta