Las Vegas Grand Prix officials pledge shorter race work schedule for ’24

The setup and takedown for the 2024 Formula One Las Vegas Grand Prix will need six fewer months than it did for last year’s inaugural race.

Grand Prix CEO Renee Wilm said Wednesday during Preview Las Vegas at Fontainebleau that the buildout of the race will take about three months this year, down from the nine months of setup work last year. The work includes setting up the track ahead of the race and tearing it down afterward.

The massive amount of work needed for last year’s Nov. 16-18 race weekend drew the ire of valley motorists who commuted in and around the resort corridor. The work area focused on Las Vegas Boulevard and Koval Lane running north and south and Harmon and Sands avenues running east and west, which created a 3.8-mile circuit.

A big reason for the quicker time frame is that the prerace work won’t require a full repaving of the track, which spans mostly public roads in the resort corridor. Completed construction of F1’s Grand Prix Plaza also will mean less prerace work than last year.

Several other infrastructure tasks that had to be carried out last year aren’t necessary for 2024, either. Those include relocating utilities, including moving power lines underground; modifying storm sewers; rerouting sewer systems; installing smart poles; and repairing sidewalks.

Crews also won’t have to work around construction of the Sphere.

“We don’t have to do all of that work, that was a year one thing,” Wilm said. “We think this will be a substantially less difficult build.”

Based on a survey conducted by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, two out of three families in the city were affected by traffic congestion created by F1 infrastructure work last year.

“Obviously the traffic issues were challenging in a way that nobody expected,” Wilm said.

Race officials also plan to alert motorists well ahead of time of roadwork, instead of periodically updating drivers as work progresses.

To lessen the impact of each phase of work, the associated traffic effects will be communicated ahead of time, as part of a single news release, a race spokesperson said.

Last year, the Las Vegas Grand Prix would periodically release information on upcoming closures a week or so before they were scheduled to begin, leading to many motorists being caught off guard by the ever-changing work schedule.

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