LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — More than three years into the I-15/Tropicana project, substantial completion is coming, according to the Nevada Department of Transportation (NDOT).
Before the project started, if you were heading southbound on Interstate 15 and getting off on Tropicana Avenue, you might remember a flyover ramp that went to Las Vegas Boulevard. It’s been closed for about two years, but it’s set to reopen on March 14.
“A lot of the major impacts that folks are seeing on Tropicana Avenue and the I-15 will be lifted by the spring,” Kelsey McFarland, NDOT Public Information Officer, said.
The relief should come from the full opening of the interchange, with the diverging diamond going away and the completion of another Rat Pack Road — Joey Bishop Drive.
“Joey Bishop Drive is really going to help alleviate some of the traffic is going to and from places like Allegiant Stadium,” McFarland said. “It’s just another option for commuters instead of Dean Martin, and then it also serves as a detour as the Dean Martin and Tropicana intersection is under construction.”
Once the project is complete, the effects of construction may not be noticeable in day-to-day life, but on game days or concert nights, McFarland says there will be relief with higher capacity roads.
Those events can slow traffic, and construction projects. NDOT resident engineer Bryan Snider says working around them was the most unique challenge of the project.
“Normally when we have a project, we have a schedule that’s start to finish and — we don’t have to take in these — we have certain large events. But this one, there’s a 41-game hockey schedule and an eight-game football schedule that we’ve got to navigate around,” Snider said.
Substantial completion of the I-15/Tropicana project is expected by fall of this year, alongside other expansions to the freeway. NDOT said 2025 is the year of the I-15.
“Year of the I-15 would be appropriate. And all of this is because, you know, in a decade’s time we plan for what population growth will look like in decade’s time, and what our infrastructure will need to look like to meet those population levels and visitor levels,” McFarland said.
