‘Aggressive vandalism’ blamed for sign outages on I-15
Damage caused by suspected vandalism knocked a handful of the dynamic messaging signs along Interstate 15 northbound out of service Wednesday.
Five of the active traffic management signs on I-15 northbound between Tropicana and Sahara avenues went offline while crews repaired damage done to their infrastructure, the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada reported late Tuesday.
RTC and Nevada Department of Transportation crews were working to correct severed fiber optic cables that were enclosed in a four-inch conduit. Officials believe vandals searching for copper wire damaged the fiber optic cables.
“While vandalism to traffic devices is not new, FAST and NDOT have never seen before this level of aggressive vandalism,” Therese Gaisser, director of the Freeway and Arterial System of Transportation, said in a statement. “The FAST team discovered a full cut to the 96-strand fiber optic cable… in a location that is not visible by surveillance… But upon finding fiber optic cable, they cut it before covering up the hole they dug to access the site.”
Crews completed a temporary fix Wednesday afternoon, allowing the signs to be operable while a permanent update can be carried out at a later date. The cost to repair the damage or when the permanent fix would occur wasn’t immediately available.
The messaging signs were installed along portions of I-15 and U.S. Highway 95 as part of Project Neon. They display various pieces of traffic information including lane closures, crashes in the area, speed limits for each lane, special event alerts.
This isn’t the first time area freeways have been impacted by copper thieves. In 2020 copper theft led to a power outage around the Spaghetti Bowl in an act that resulted in $140,000 in damages.
Contact Mick Akers at makers@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2920. Follow @mickakers on Twitter.
