EDITORIAL: More HOV nonsense with Tropicana/I-15 project

Nevada transportation officials revealed this week that the price tag on the remake of the Tropicana/Interstate 15 interchange has jumped more than 17 percent to $273 million. A Nevada Department of Transportation official said part of the increase resulted when officials decided to include another nearby project — the repaving of I-15 between Warm Springs and Hacienda — in the interchange work.

“Keep in the mind that the department was going to do the pavement preservation project whether it was a part of the interchange makeover or not,” NDOT spokesman Tony Ilia told the Review-Journal. “Technically, we will be saving money and reducing traffic impacts by folding this work into the project” and cutting down on “department and management expenses.”

Taxpayers should applaud anything that saves money and creates fewer disruptions for motorists. And it’s good to see NDOT exhibiting some flexibility when it makes sense. Unfortunately, the agency remains committed — in service to environmental preening — to constructing too many new miles of highway capacity that will be off limits to the vast majority of Southern Nevada drivers, and this unfortunately remains the plan for the Tropicana interchange.

The Tropicana renovation — which is scheduled for a 2023 completion and took on added urgency with the construction of nearby Allegiant Stadium — includes more high-occupancy vehicle ramps and flyovers. Like other HOV freeway lanes and ramps in the Las Vegas area, usage will be restricted to vehicles with more than one occupant at all hours of the day, every day of the year under the guise that this will somehow encourage car-pooling and increase sales of hybrid or plug-in vehicles as a means of reducing emissions.

Yet less than two years after finishing Project Neon in and around the Spaghetti Bowl at the intersection of I-15 and U.S. Highway 95 — which included miles of restricted carpool capacity — NDOT has yet to produce any numbers as part of its promised “comprehensive assessment” indicating that the creation of HOV lanes has had the intended effect. Meanwhile, most of the taxpayers who helped fund the project remain unable to access many of its features and the Nevada Highway Patrol now must contend with thousands of HOV scofflaws who simply ignore the requirements.

Las Vegas freeways are likely to return to capacity as the pandemic wanes. It makes little sense to continue to expand an HOV system that remains woefully underused — at least legally. NDOT should continue to show flexibility with the Tropicana project and drop the carpool ramps and flyovers in favor of general use lanes. Then it should reverse the bizarre decision to enforce HOV restrictions 24/7 rather than only during traditional morning and afternoon rush hours.