Las Vegas city planners want to turn Oakey Boulevard into ‘complete street’

Commuters who use Oakey Boulevard between Valley View and Rainbow boulevards are more than a little flummoxed by the new orange cone zone that has bloomed like our many oleanders.

Warrior reader Mayra smells a conspiracy theory:

“For me, those orange cones are a sign of corruption, changing asphalt when it is not bad at all as they are doing right now on Oakey Boulevard,” she said. “I am very sure the person in charge to extend project contracts to construction companies is getting money under the table or somehow they are doing jobs again and again.”

An unidentified caller to Warrior Central asked, “Just what exactly are they doing to Oakey? It looks like they’re cutting traffic lanes for bike lanes and nobody even uses bicycles on that street.”

Las Vegas city planners beg to differ. They’re seeing a higher percentage of pedestrians and bicyclists along Oakey, which has resulted in a plan to develop that section as a “complete street.”

By definition, complete streets are streets for everyone, according to the National Complete Streets Coalition. That means designers not only care about people in cars but also people on foot, on bicycles, in wheelchairs and in buses.

There’s no firm characteristic for every complete street, and each one is different based on the character of the neighborhood.

In Oakey Boulevard’s case, one of the key characteristics of the neighborhood is an abundance of schools so there are plenty of pedestrians and bicyclists.

Over the next few weeks, crews will put the finishing touches on the project. Commuters may have been fooled that some of the initial work — improving sidewalks to conform with the federal Americans with Disabilities Act — was being done a second time, but in fact, the work that’s going on now is a continuation of the whole program.

“The pavement overlay is complete, and we are currently raising and collaring utilities,” said Jerry Walker, the city’s director of operations and maintenance. “At this time, traffic impact is limited to the utility work locations. The striping subcontractor is working between two jobs, but has most of the lane markings installed. The bike lane markings and any remaining marking activities should be completed early this week.”

Walker said there are several median islands being constructed and those should be completed the first week of May. The final work activities are for traffic signals and include new loops and head relocations. Those activities are yet to be scheduled, but should be completed by late May. Two of the median islands have open areas which will get decorative landscape rock. Contingent upon funding and staffing resources, crews will return in late summer or early fall to install metal flora and fauna sculptures.

“A primary goal of the project, besides the street rehabilitation component, is to make it a safer and more ‘complete street’ for all users of the corridor,” said Mike Janssen, transportation manager for the city. “This corridor has numerous Clark County School District schools, the College of Southern Nevada campus, and it crosses many major north-south transit lines, such as the ones on Rainbow, Jones, Decatur, and Valley View. These attributes generate a lot of pedestrian and bicycle activity.”

Oakey used to be a mixture of four and five lanes, either two lanes in each direction separated by a centerline or two lanes in each direction separated by a center turn lane, Janssen said. Now it will have four lanes throughout, two westbound, one center turn lane and one lane eastbound, but there also will be short exclusive right-turn lanes in the eastbound direction at signalized intersections.

Other local roads are getting the “complete streets” treatment, including the Main Street-Commerce Street one-way pairings in downtown Las Vegas and Maryland Parkway, which is being designed to incorporate an urban streetcar mass transit component.

Beltway progress

Several readers were angry that it took so long for crews working on the 215 Beltway between Aliante Parkway and Fifth Street to put some form of barricade between the east- and westbound lanes. For years, all four lanes of traffic had been shifted to the westbound side until crews began working on the eastbound lanes this year. Most motorists never reduced speed to the 45 mph posted within the section, and there have been at least two fatalities this year as a result of head-on collisions.

Today’s there’s better news. That section remains a construction zone, but at least now it’s a divided highway. Work also has begun on a new exit and overpass.

Clark County’s Dan Kulin said the new exit will be for Revere Street and serve neighborhoods north and south of the highway — as soon as Revere is extended from both directions.

Heavy traffic

Saturday morning and evening special events may create a few traffic headaches this week.

The Moms Rock! at the Diane Snyder Run to Remember, benefiting Keep Memory Alive and the Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health, will feature 5- and 10-kilometer and 1-mile runs in the streets around the Lou Ruvo Center and the Smith Center for the Performing Arts. Streets will be affected from around 7 a.m. to noon.

A concert Saturday night featuring Billy Joel will clog the Las Vegas Strip and the vicinity of T-Mobile Arena. Traffic should start heating up at around 6 p.m.

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