Starr Avenue area to finally get access to I-15 — VIDEOS
The last time citizens gathered to talk with Nevada Department of Transportation officials about the planned Starr Avenue interchange on Interstate 15 they got a major design change.
This time, it looks as if the current design is a go and construction will begin on the 18-month, $40 million to $52 million project by late spring 2017.
The new Starr Avenue interchange will provide new access to residents of Southern Highlands and neighborhoods east of Las Vegas Boulevard. The basic diamond freeway interchange is a mile south of the Cactus Avenue exit that opened in late August 2014.
The project is a part of the I-15 South Corridor that extends from Tropicana Avenue to Sloan on Southern Nevada's primary route to Southern California.
As southwestern Las Vegas continues to develop, the need for better access off I-15 has grown. The Department of Transportation conducted environmental studies for a Starr Avenue interchange in 2008, but the project got lost in post-recession financial problems.
When the project was resurrected and shown in a public meeting in 2010, some residents were concerned that Starr Avenue was going to be an overpass over the six-lane freeway. Department engineers agreed to take another look at the design to see if they could develop the interchange as an underpass beneath I-15 instead so that traffic noise could be reduced.
As a result, the plan that was rolled out in a meeting Thursday at Steve Schorr Elementary School incorporated the new design as an underpass.
Ryan Wheeler, the Starr interchange project manager, told about 50 people attending the meeting that the design is about 60 percent complete, meaning that the project will likely go to bid in early 2017 with construction beginning by spring. The 18-month construction timeline would mean completion is likely by late 2018 or early 2019.
The project includes the completion Starr Avenue between Las Vegas Boulevard to the east and Dean Martin Drive to the west; the construction of the I-15 bridge over Starr; sidewalks, crosswalks, bicycle lanes, lighting and traffic signals; landscaping, aesthetics and drainage improvements; and southbound and northbound exits and entrances to and from the freeway.
A sound wall also will be built along the west side of the project to block freeway noise.
Starr will be four lanes with landscaped medians and bike lanes.
The four-lane northbound I-15 exit will have two left-turn and two right-turn exit bays onto Starr while the three-lane southbound exit will have a single right-turn lane, a left-turn lane and a center lane that will provide left turn or straight-ahead options.
When it comes time for workers to build the I-15 overpass of Starr, I-15 traffic will be detoured to the freeway exits and entrances which will be built first.
The biggest concerns expressed by residents Thursday was about how the exit would increase the level of vehicle emissions in the area.
Of the $40 million to $52 million construction cost, $35 million will come from fuel revenue indexing, the special 3-year fuel tax approved by the Legislature and the Clark County Commission that has funded more than 200 projects since its enactment last year.
Contact Richard N. Velotta at rvelotta@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893. Find him on Twitter: @RickVelotta
