If you try to cross this Las Vegas highway, a fence will greet you

Officials have taken an unconventional approach to keep pedestrians from jaywalking across one of the most dangerous roads in Nevada: placing a chain-link fence in the median of Boulder Highway between Flamingo Road and Nellis Boulevard.

The fence was installed in October by Clark County at a cost of $41,285, after a request from the Metropolitan Police Department. The goal is to study whether the fence will deter jaywalkers along a 1,500-foot stretch of highway, a county spokesperson said.

Metro said the fence is a part of Clark County Sheriff Kevin McMahill’s initiative to reduce the number of traffic fatalities in the valley.

Metro works with the county and city of Las Vegas to make the area’s roadways safer, a Metro spokesperson said. Metro also preaches three “E’s” when it comes to traffic: education, enforcement and engineering.

When first built in 1931, Boulder Highway was the Las Vegas Valley’s only freeway. It has carried state Route 5 and later U.S. Routes 93, 95 and 466 from near Boulder Highway through Henderson and into downtown Las Vegas.

Since then, the area has developed rapidly, with more than 20,000 homes, apartments and condominiums and about 1,000 commercial lots within a half-mile of Boulder Highway.

More fencing to come

The county plans to extend the use of median fencing on Boulder Highway with another installation from Flamingo Road to Sahara Avenue. That fence will go up early next year, the county said.

Although she thinks the fencing will serve its purpose, Erin Breen, director of Road Equity Alliance, said a long-term fix is the better way to go for Boulder Highway.

“My issue with the fencing is that it treats people like cattle. It assumes they are not worth the effort to fix the issues we all know the road has,” Breen said. “It is wide, flat and fast with long distances to walk to legally cross the street. The lighting is terrible, to make matters worse.”

The length of the fence in place now spans the equivalent of five football fields. Breen questioned how many of the drivers who regularly commute on the busy road would walk such a distance to get to a crosswalk.

Dangerous stretch

Breen favors previous upgrades made to Boulder Highway in 2018 and 2019 by the Nevada Department of Transportation, when nine crosswalks were upgraded. That $1.5 million project included overhead flashing beacons, pedestrian warning signs, enhanced lighting and new midblock crosswalks.

The Road Equity Alliance first got involved with Boulder Highway in 2015, when 11 pedestrians and one cyclist died on the highway, according to the group’s data.

There was a noticeable dip in vulnerable road user deaths on Boulder Highway following the safety upgrades in 2019. There were six pedestrian deaths in 2022, four in 2023 and four in 2024. There have been three pedestrian deaths in 2025, Breen said.

Before the upgrades, the deadliest intersection in Nevada was Sun Valley Drive and Boulder Highway, Breen said.

“After the upgrade and redesign, there have been zero people killed; there have been two critical injuries — both driver error,” Breen said. “That upgrade happened in 2018, late in the year, the rest in 2019. Good design and a lot of enforcement saved a lot of lives.”

Reimagine Boulder Highway

One long-term fix being considered is the Reimagine Boulder Highway project, which would increase safety for all road users in the corridor, including pedestrians, cyclists and drivers.

The project had been in the works for over 20 years, with the first work on the 15-mile corridor starting in Henderson last year on a 7.5-mile stretch of the highway. The $172 million project reduces the number of traffic lanes from six to four, enhances pedestrian zones, adds a multiuse lane on both sides of the road, widens sidewalks and improves street lighting.

Elevated bike lanes will be added on both sides of the street, and signalized midblock pedestrian crossings and center-running bus rapid transit will be added. All are aimed at increasing safety for all users, while also improving vehicle traffic.

The Henderson work is being carried out in three segments between Wagon Wheel and Tulip Falls drives. Officials anticipate a three-year work schedule with completion slated by the end of 2027.

The other half

The other 7.5 miles of Boulder Highway upgrades are being determined. That stretch, which runs from Gibson Road at the Henderson border to Charleston Boulevard, is under the jurisdiction of the Regional Transportation Commission, Clark County and the city of Las Vegas.

The RTC is preparing the National Environmental Policy Act review and preliminary engineering on the northern half of the corridor. That work began after the RTC received a federal grant to fund the work.

“We anticipate that the NEPA process for potential future construction of the northern half of the corridor will consider the findings from the city of Henderson’s implementation of the ‘Re-Imagine Boulder Highway’ plan,” RTC Deputy CEO Daivd Swallow said in an email.

Once the NEPA process and preliminary engineering plans are complete, the RTC — in coordination with the Nevada Department of Transportation, Clark County and the city of Las Vegas — can apply for grant funding for the construction process.

“We are hoping to identify possible future funding and complete the final design by late 2028,” Swallow said. “If successful, construction could begin as early as 2029.”

If construction were to begin in 2029, early project timeline estimates have the work wrapping up by the end of 2032.

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

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