Las Vegas Is Still Waiting For An I-15 Expansion

Image: Mario Tama (Getty Images)

Interstate 15 is an important artery for both California and Las Vegas. Aside from commerce, it funnels that sweet tourism money into Las Vegas. As the years have gone on, however, and more and more people visit Sin City, I-15 can become a slog, especially on major holidays. This past Memorial Day weekend saw a 12-mile-long traffic jam at the California/Nevada state line; it took some people nine or ten hours to get back home to Southern California. Issues like this show just how badly I-15 needs to be widened to handle the traffic, absent mass transportation. California previously promised to do that, but, as Las Vegas’ Fox 5 reports, city officials are still waiting for California to pitch in for the interstate.

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In December 2021, California Governor Gavin Newsom and Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak held a press conference to announce that California would be expanding a portion of I-15. With a $12 million price tag, Newsom said the project would be done in the summer of 2022. But 2022 came and went and there was no expansion, at least not the way it was supposed to be. Just a mile stretch of I-15 has been expanded.

“They need to get their acts together,” Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman said when referring to California officials. Goodman is aware of the traffic issues, but she’s also aware of just how important tourism is for Vegas’ industry. “Selfishly for us, it is tourism. It is the convention business,” Goodman said. She continued, “I’m ready to go out there with a shovel to show that we care about all of you from California, we want you to have a great time.” But she hopes Californians join in with venting their frustrations about I-15 traffic to California officials. The expansion has been a long time coming. “It will be a quarter of a century we are screaming at California come on do something,” Goodman said.

But California is acting like a person avoiding a bill collector. It took two months for Fox 5 to get an answer from the California Department of Transportation. The agency finally issued a statement:

Caltrans has opened a one-mile transition lane that allows motorists to merge smoothly from three to two lanes along southbound I-15 at the California-Nevada border. This one-mile transition lane has saved drivers traveling from Las Vegas to Southern California an average of 30-40 minutes on non-holiday weekends with little to no queuing around the border.

Plans to improve traffic conditions in the area include the opening of a third, southbound part-time lane for five miles from the state line to the California Department of Food and Agricultural station. The timing of opening the lane is still being determined as Caltrans works with our federal partners and the Southern California Association of Governments on the necessary regulatory approvals.