215 Beltway widening project winding down in Las Vegas

A major widening project on the 215 Beltway going on since 2023 is heading down its final stretch.

The nearly $85 million widening of the Beltway between Interstate 15 and Jones Boulevard will wrap up in May.

One lane is being added in each direction along the stretch, bringing the total to five lanes in both eastbound and westbound directions.

“Currently, the beltway is four lanes in each direction. … After the project, it’ll be five lanes from essentially Jones to the I-15 off-ramp eastbound and you’ll essentially have five lanes from I-15 all the way to Jones going westbound,” said Jimmy Floyd, manager of construction management for Clark County Public Works.

The project also includes construction of a bridge to create a braided off-ramp to Decatur for westbound traffic, a bridge over the Union Pacific Railroad and updates to the Valley View Boulevard bridge.

Floyd said the collector-distributor road “will essentially take away a lot of the conflict points that typically occur on freeway interchanges where you have on-ramps and off-ramps intersecting.”

The new braided off-ramp with the collector-distributor road will help ease traffic issues, especially during rush hour traffic, where motorists are merging onto the 215 westbound from Las Vegas Boulevard and I-15 northbound and southbound.

Coming soon

“The collector distributor road will be open for traffic in March,” Floyd said. “If you’re coming off the collector-distributor road from, say southbound I-15, it’s one lane, but the northbound I-15 and Las Vegas Boulevard traffic that comes across now will be a two-lane configuration. So, you won’t have to sit there and merge together and you’ll be able to stay in your lanes.”

The three lanes will come on to the collector-distributor road, with the ability to exit to Decatur or to continue onto 215 westbound. The new configuration also will include traffic already on 215 westbound approaching Decatur entering the off-ramp just under the Dean Martin Drive bridge, Floyd said.

Other work tied to the project includes upgrading drainage, guardrails, concrete barriers, replacing lights, installing new overhead sign structures, adding a traffic count station and utility updates.

With the 215 being one of the most-used roads in the Las Vegas Valley the stretch has seen significant wear over the years. During one of the final phases of the project’s schedule, which is slated to wrap up in May, will see the resurfacing of the beltway in both directions.

“Similar to other beltway projects that are occurring right now we put a new asphalt surface on the pavement that will make it brand new, with brand new striping,” Floyd said. “All the pothole issues that we’ve ran into on the project will go away, because it adds a sealed surface. So, we’re not experiencing anymore potholes on other beltway segments (that have been resurfaced.”

One last portion of bridge repair work on the project that will impact traffic significantly is slated to occur between Feb. 17-28.

“That’s going to be 24/7 work between the 17th and the 28th, where westbound will be down to two lanes,” Floyd said.

Contact Mick Akers at makers@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2920. Follow @mickakers on X. Send questions and comments to roadwarrior@reviewjournal.com.