Tropicana/i-15 upgrade will run through 2024

HOV ramp, widening of overpass in works

The project’s scope includes I-15 between Russell and Flamingo roads and Tropicana between Las Vegas and Valley View boulevards.

Design-build plans for the first major upgrade to the Interstate 15/Tropicana Avenue interchange since the 1960s were revealed by the state Tuesday.

Jeff Lerud, senior project manager with the Nevada Department of Transportation, provided the Clark County Commission with details of the up-to-$230 million upgrade that has been in discussions since 2012.

The budget includes up to $200 million for construction, $21 million for right-of-way acquisitions, and $9 million for preliminary engineering work. Identifying where the money will come from is still in the works, though President Donald Trump announced in June that $50 million in federal funds would go toward the project.

“So important for improving and reducing traffic in this booming area,” Trump tweeted about the grant award June 18.

Lerud expects a large portion of the funding will come from the state, with about $20 million of unknown funding sources that NDOT could approach the federal government about.

Project details

The project’s scope includes I-15 between Russell and Flamingo roads and Tropicana between Las Vegas and Valley View boulevards. The area serves as a gateway to the Strip, T-mobile Arena and the nearly complete $2 billion Allegiant Stadium.

“Interstate 15 is at the heart of Southern Nevada, serving as a lifeline to both tourism and commerce,” Lerud said. “One of the most crucial points on I-15 is its intersection with the Tropicana interchange. Tropicana serves as one of the main gateways to the resort corridor and provides a connection to some of the valley’s largest employment centers.”

The project includes the reconstruction of the interchange with a longer and wider overpass over I-15, and the construction of a high-occupancy-vehicle ramp at Harmon Avenue, approximately a half-mile to the north. The ramp would run in the middle of the interstate, allowing HOV drivers to access Harmon from I-15 northbound, as well as access to I-15 southbound from Harmon.

The Tropicana interchange will become more of a diamond onramp and offramp configuration with the flyover at Tropicana. Dean Martin Drive will be reconfigured to go underneath the Tropicana freeway ramps, eliminating a traffic light at the intersection near the InN-out restaurant.

Circular roads will be in place to maintain access to the northwest and southwest quadrants.

The sidewalks on Tropicana over I-15 will be widened from 5 to 10 feet, and a new pedestrian walkway will be constructed from the north side of Tropicana down to Frank Sinatra Drive, opening up a new access point to T-mobile.

“We really have minimal sidewalk connectivity on Tropicana from Dean Martin to the west, to probably New York-new York and Excalibur,” Lerud said. “We have 5-foot sidewalks that are intermittent along the whole area, but there’s not really anything that’s connected from the east to the west. … We’re going to construct 10-foot sidewalks … and they’re going to be fully connected from the west to the east on both sides of Tropicana.”

Timeline

Though it will serve as a major traffic component to game and event days at Allegiant Stadium, the interchange project won’t get underway until at least a year after the 65,000-fan-capacity Raiders stadium project is complete.

Plans call for construction to begin as early as late 2021, but more realistically early 2022, with completion slated for 2024, according to Lerud.

County Commissioner Larry Brown hopes the transportation department can stay on course and finish on time, as the project has already been drawn out for eight years.

“It’s important that Southern Nevada, Clark County and RTC (Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada) keeps NDOT honest and efficient in the spending of dollars, the priorities that are placed in Southern Nevada and keep their feet to the fire on these project timelines.”