Improvise for detour traffic jam

Homemade barrier tells motorists, ‘Dead End’

Fed up with a parade of vehicles entering their neighborhood during last weekend’s Project Neon detour, residents of one central valley neighborhood took matters into their own hands.

The detour took drivers heading south on Interstate 15 to U.S. Highway 95 northbound and then to Rancho Drive where they turned south to re-enter I-15 at Sahara Avenue. As a result, heavy traffic was seen on the approximately 3-mile stretch of Rancho all weekend.

As some drivers grew impatient, they would turn into the Rancho De Manaco neighborhood just off Rancho on El Cortez Avenue to try to find their own detour, only to learn there was no other outlet to exit the neighborhood. They then would end up back at Rancho and back in the mass of vehicles, said Steve Miller, a former Las Vegas city councilman, who lives in the area.

Some residents in the Rancho De Manaco neighborhood did some do-it-yourself roadwork and made a barrier out of a small mattress with “Dead End, Do Not Enter, Be nice!!!” written with black marker on it. The residents tied rope to orange cones on each end with American flags attached to the top of the cones at the corner of El Cortez and Westlund Drive.

“The residents down at the end near El Cortez and Rancho put up that little barricade, which was comical,” Miller said. “It was sitting there for days asking people not to turn in. It seemed to have worked.”

The barrier now sits in the driveway of a home that is being condemned by the city, and Miller said he has heard plans that it again will be erected in the roadway ahead of this weekend’s planned closure of I-15 northbound between Sahara and D Street.

That closure, running from Friday night until Monday morning, will again send drivers down Rancho as part of a detour, but this time drivers will be heading northbound. Another detour route beginning at Industrial Road also will provide some relief to the neighborhoods on Rancho.

“At least they’ll have an option of two roadways and not just one like they did last weekend,” Miller said. “I predict this week will impact the neighborhoods on the east side of Rancho more than last weekend’s fiasco that interfered with us on the west side.”

With the detour increasing the traffic in and out of the neighborhood, residents have been campaigning for a change, Miller said.

After meeting with city Councilwoman Lois Tarkanian about the issue, relief is on the way, but not before this weekend’s planned closure of I-15 northbound.

A traffic signal is planned for the entrance-exit of the corporate center where Chick-fil-a is located, according to city spokesman Jace Radke.

With that signal coming well after this weekend’s detour, Miller said he and other neighborhood residents are planning ahead and preparing for the closure.