215 Beltway set for widening project near I-15
Another major freeway project is slated to get underway this year in the Las Vegas Valley.
The $84.5 million widening of the 215 Beltway between Interstate 15 and Decatur Boulevard is set to begin on July 3. The work is expected to take 600 days to complete, with the project planned to wrap up in February 2025.
Work will mainly take place between 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., but Clark County expects Las Vegas Paving to request to work multiple shifts throughout the duration of the project, according to county spokesman Erik Pappa.
Project details include the reconstruction of the 215 between Decatur and I-15, adding one lane in each direction, for a total of four lanes on each side. The construction of a new braided offramp for Decatur westbound to the 215 and a bridge structure over Union Pacific Railroad.
Additional modifications will be made to the bridge over to Valley View Boulevard.
Other minor improvements included drainage facilities, upgraded LED lighting and the installation of Intelligent Transportation Systems infrastructure.
Las Vegas Paving will have about three months to complete the work on the Las Vegas Boulevard interchange that is just east of I-15. It will consist of work on Las Vegas Boulevard, Hidden Well Road, George Crockett Road, Las Vegas Boulevard offramp from I-15 and the 215 eastbound and the 215 eastbound onramp from Las Vegas Boulevard. The time limit will start once the initial lane closure tied to that work begins, Pappa noted.
The exact planned lane and road closures have yet to be determined and will not be known until construction begins, Pappa said.
The short stretch of the 215 is a factor to morning and evening rush hour traffic congestion, where the 215 loses a lane. The adding of a lane on each side will help ease some of the pain, but the merging of I-15 traffic to 215 westbound and motorists exiting the 215 eastbound to I-15 are also contributing traffic factors.
Once the project is complete, the 215 will be four lanes in each direction between Pecos Road in Henderson to Charleston Boulevard in Summerlin.
Latest in 215 upgrades
The widening is the latest in a slew of expansion phases for the 215. In all, with the planned Decatur to I-15 widening included, more than $200 million will have been spent in recent years on adding capacity to the Beltway.
Those stretched from Henderson to Summerlin, opening up higher lane capacity on one of the valley’s busiest road systems.
In fall 2020, a project wrapped up on the Beltway between Decatur and Tropicana Avenue was widened, to add a travel lane in each direction on the 7-mile stretch of road. About 193,000 vehicles travel that stretch of road per day.
The 215 Beltway between Tropicana Avenue and Charleston, which sees 108,000 vehicles daily, saw a widening project completed in 2021.
A $29.6 million project that widened the 215 from Pecos to Windmill began in 2020 and wrapped in 2021. That project added one lane to each side of the 215 and saw a portion of the roadway repaved.
Next up
The next planned work tied to the 215 will start this year with the $100 million 215/Summerlin Parkway interchange project. The exact start date is yet to be determined, but once started it will take 18 months to complete.
Henderson will see another area of the Beltway widened at a future date, as a projected $35 million project will add lane capacity to the highway between Pecos and Stephanie Street.
The project will add two lanes in each direction and see interchange improvements at Pecos and Green Valley Parkway, according to the city of Henderson.
The project also calls for ramp improvements at Valle Verde Drive and Stephanie, and a pedestrian bridge at Green Valley Parkway and Village Walk Drive, near the District at Green Valley Ranch and the Dollar Loan Center arena. No timetable was available for this project.
Contact Mick Akers at makers@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2920. Follow @mickakers on Twitter. Send questions and comments to roadwarrior@reviewjournal.com.
