Traffic suggests busy weekend

If Sunday's traffic jam along Interstate 15 is any indication, plenty of Californians will be fueling Las Vegas's struggling economy this coming week.

And if the backup seen on the highways leading into and out of Boulder City is any indication, Las Vegans are headed elsewhere during the holiday week.

Though the Christmas week is behind us and New Year's Day is a few days away, the lesson is that motorists coming to or leaving town should allow plenty of extra time to reach their destination.

Las Vegas motorists headed home from Southern California on Sunday afternoon reported that Interstate 15 was choked with vehicles. The jams lasted into the evening, fueled not by drivers with Nevada plates returning home but mostly folks from our neighboring state to the west.

The Nevada Highway Patrol reported no major accidents and said construction projects were placed on hold for the holiday weekend, but the congestion was horrendous. Whether you experienced it depended on what time of day you chose to travel.

Stephanie Scalise said that she left Oxnard, Calif., about 2 p.m. and that by the time she hit Barstow, she found herself creeping along the interstate at 10 to 15 mph. The leg of the trip between Barstow and Las Vegas, which typically takes about 2½ hours, ended up being a six-hour, not-so-pleasant adventure.

"We go to California every once in a while, but I have never seen traffic that bad," she said. "I didn't see any accidents or construction. You would think I'd notice since I was driving so slow."

Cindy Trout left Barstow about an hour earlier, and the trip into town was only about 45 minutes longer than normal.

"Compared to what it used to be, it was nothing; it wasn't that bad," said Trout, who has driven to Southern California about 10 times a year for the past three decades. "It's better than it's ever been. It's all about the road improvements."

The problem isn't only between California and Nevada.

Boulder City Mayor Roger Tobler said the new Hoover Dam bypass bridge linking Nevada and Arizona was expected to expedite the trip south, but it has created traffic jams on U.S. Highway 93.

Tobler said the trouble doesn't only exist on holidays, but weekends too.

The bottleneck caused by the highway from Boulder City approaching the bridge narrowing to one lane in each direction near the Hacienda hotel-casino is worse than anybody imagined, he said.

"It's been bad every weekend since it opened," Tobler said. At times the traffic will be at a standstill in Boulder City and back up all the way to Wagonwheel Drive on U.S. Highway 95 in Henderson, he said. "This isn't something that cropped up because of Christmas and New Year's."

Tobler is urging the Nevada Department of Transportation to prohibit tractor-trailers from using the route across the bypass bridge until new lanes are added. The state plans by next summer to widen the two-mile segment that narrows to one lane.

Contact reporter Adrienne Packer at apacker@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2904.