Officials brace for traffic boom in northwest Las Vegas

State transportation officials are working hard to keep up with building roads to accommodate the flood of people moving into the northwest end of Las Vegas.

Once considered the outskirts of town, the area is booming with new houses. The Centennial Bowl isn’t even completed, and it’s already expected to become the second-busiest freeway interchange in Nevada, after the Spaghetti Bowl crossing of U.S. Highway 95 and Interstate 15 in downtown Las Vegas.

By summer, work will be completed on a 60-foot-tall, 2,500-foot-long flyover bridge at the Centennial Bowl, linking the westbound 215 Beltway to southbound U.S. Highway 95.

The project isn’t done, but officials with the Nevada Department of Transportation are already looking ahead to the next round of improvements for the heavily traveled northwest neighborhood.

Tim, who lives near the Centennial Bowl, wanted to know whether NDOT was planning to widen U.S. 95 around Durango Drive.

“The highway has three lanes for a short distance, then bottlenecks to two lanes, then widens back to three lanes at the Durango off-ramp,” Tim wrote in an email to the Road Warrior. “It’s comical to watch those who don’t know that it ends or forget about it. But it’s going to lead to accidents.”

U.S. 95 will eventually be widened for a pretty long stretch, but NDOT won’t advertise for construction bids until late 2019, NDOT spokesman Tony Illia said.

When work finally does start, the $111 million improvement calls for widening U.S. 95 between Washington Avenue and Kyle Canyon Road, Illia said. Additionally, crews will build the 215 Beltway between Grand Montecito Parkway to Tenaya Way, frontage roads and a new alignment for Oso Blanca Road.

BICYCLE LANES

More bicyclists are popping up on local roads with the warmer springtime weather. Groups are spotted using designated bicycle lanes from downtown Las Vegas to the popular hiking areas around Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area.

Corbitte from Pahrump wanted to know whether there was a law stating how many bicycles can ride side-by-side within a bike lane.

“I noticed that the norm is that bicyclists ride two abreast, and sometimes three abreast,” Corbitte wrote in an email. “How does adding bike lanes have a positive effect if there are no limits on how many can ride side-by-side?”

Bicyclists cannot ride more than two abreast if they are sharing the open road with motor vehicles, and must abide by the same rules as cars, Nevada Highway Patrol Trooper Jason Buratczuk said. That means motorists driving in a 45 mph zone could get stuck behind a bicyclist going 15 to 20 mph.

However, there is no law restricting how many bicyclists can ride side-by-side within a dedicated bicycle lane, Buratczuk said.

“Bicycle lanes are typically only five feet wide, so I don’t really think you could ride more than two abreast,” Buratczuk said.

DUAL LANES

Ronald from Las Vegas wanted to know why westbound Ann Road starts with three lanes from Camino Al Norte to Decatur Boulevard, then narrows to two lanes to Rainbow Boulevard in Las Vegas.

“There are two signs on Decatur warning drivers to merge, but quite often there are drivers who use the right shoulder as a driving lane,” Ronald wrote in an email. “With the high level of traffic here, why doesn’t the city stripe the road and make it three lanes?”

City spokeswoman Margaret Kurtz said she gets the question pretty often.

If you noticed, there are several houses along Ann that were built in the 1970s and 1980s, with driveways that face the road. The extra space on Ann is needed, Kurtz said, so that residents can safely back their vehicles onto the street. In fact, the city placed edge lines along the street to specify that there are not three lanes in this area.

“If the road were striped for three lanes, these back-out maneuvers would become too dangerous,” Kurtz said.

TRAILER CAMERAS

Diane from Henderson recently spotted a tower of flashing red and blue lights, with a support box that read “Police” at Eastern Avenue and Sun City Anthem Drive. She said the tower was “distracting,” and wanted to know why it was in her neighborhood.

The Henderson Police Department has three trailer cameras that can be moved around the city as needed, primarily serving as a crime deterrent, city spokeswoman Kim Becker said. Schedules and locations aren’t set for the trailer cameras, but the live feeds are pretty helpful when police are looking for investigative leads after a crime.

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