Pedestrian bridge opening on Strip delayed

The latest pedestrian bridge being built over the Strip, between Park MGM and the Showcase mall, had its completion date pushed to next month.

The bridge is now expected to open by mid-November because of utility conflicts tied to the escalators, said Dan Kulin, Clark County spokesman. Construction began in November 2018 and originally was expected to finish in July.

Vehicle traffic will be affected on Las Vegas Boulevard near the pedestrian bridge as the project wraps up.

“There will continue to be periodic lane shifts and/or lane closures, but we do not expect any more full closures of either side,” Kulin said in an email.

It will be the 17th pedestrian bridge along the Strip; the first two bridges built at Tropicana Avenue and Las Vegas Boulevard opened in 1995. The most recent bridge opened in 2012 at Harmon Avenue.

The next pedestrian bridge is slated to to connect the area in front of Bellagio to the area leading to Planet Hollywood Resort.

Design work and right-of-way issues are being sorted out for that bridge, with construction likely to begin within two years, Kulin said.

Bridges linking all four corners of Las Vegas Boulevard and Sahara Avenue are also in the pipeline, with the estimated $27.5 million project slated to begin in 2022. Between 2015 and 2017, two pedestrians were killed and 22 were injured in the area near the intersection, according to Department of Public Safety data.

Additional plans call for bridges to stretch across Las Vegas Boulevard between Caesars Palace and the Linq, and at Resorts World Las Vegas, but those projects don’t have timelines.

The bridges are part of an effort to increase pedestrian safety on the busiest street in Las Vegas. In addition, 4,500 steel posts, known as bollards, are being installed along Las Vegas Boulevard to protect pedestrians from vehicles.

“The more we can give pedestrians an opportunity to cross over traffic and take them off the street the better,” said County Commissioner Michael Naft. “Does it (the number of pedestrian bridges) become comical at some point? Maybe, but as long as we’re saving lives and keeping people off the Strip, that’s a good thing.”

Contact Mick Akers at makers@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2920. Follow @mickakers on Twitter.