On the road again

Many gridlock-fatigued Southern Nevada drivers have waited more than 10 years for these words: the widening of U.S. Highway 95 through central Las Vegas will be finished this week.

The most badly needed, time-consuming, politically challenging project in the history of the Nevada Department of Transportation is finally at an end. The days of lane shifts, ramp closures and endless rows of orange barrels will soon be gone. Only a few more days of finishing work — signage, paint, etc. — stand in the way of quicker, less-frustrating commutes.

An overwhelmed, six-lane freeway is now a gleaming stretch of 10-lane highway between the Rainbow Curve and the Interstate 15 interchange. Completed at a cost of about $520 million, it will provide a well-timed jolt to the valley’s economy and a welcome improvement to the area’s overall quality of life. The added lane capacity and more efficient entrance and exit merges will speed up traffic flow and relieve some pressure on the area’s congested surface streets.

Will the revamped highway correct all of the artery’s choke points? Unfortunately not. The widening project is not without warts.

For starters, one new lane in each direction will be open only to motorcyclists and vehicles with at least two passengers. Unlike HOV lanes in other metropolitan areas, which prohibit single-occupant cars and trucks only during peak morning and evening hours, this restriction will be in place 24 hours per day, seven days per week. Violators will face a $300 fine, said trooper Kevin Honea, spokesman for the Nevada Highway Patrol.

NDOT needs to make the state’s first HOV lanes open to all vehicles for the majority of each day.

Additionally, the realigned Rainbow Curve will still force two lanes from eastbound Summerlin Parkway to merge into one before entering southbound U.S. 95. NDOT had enough right of way to create two dedicated lanes for this interchange, but inexplicably chose not to.

The squeeze on Summerlin drivers won’t be as bad as the one they endured throughout construction, which reduced eastbound traffic to one lane at Buffalo Drive. But when travel on Summerlin Parkway grows in the years ahead — its Beltway interchange will be upgraded and the parkway will be widened from four to eight lanes in the near future — NDOT will have no choice but to fix this awful mistake.

And resort corridor workers will run into the same slowdowns when merging from southbound U.S. 95 onto southbound I-15. The additional I-15 lanes needed to speed that turn won’t be built until at least 2011, said NDOT spokesman Bob McKenzie.

However, northbound I-15 traffic that travels the massive flyover ramp to northbound U.S. 95 should move much more quickly because of the widening improvements.

Overall, the good news that will result from this endeavor significantly outweighs the bad. NDOT is planning a big party to mark the project’s completion, to be held near the southbound U.S. 95 offramp at Valley View Boulevard. But that celebration won’t take place until Dec. 17. Too many people deserve recognition before then.

For starters, taxpayers can thank the Sierra Club for adding about $30 million in costs and more than a year in delays through a bogus federal lawsuit. It’s doubtful the greens would dare hold another news conference in the shadow of the highway’s new sound walls, as they did in 2005, and declare that smooth-flowing traffic will pose a greater cancer risk to the people who live nearby than snarled, bumper-to-bumper traffic. Today, the Sierra Club is far too busy trying to make electricity unavailable and unaffordable to Southern Nevadans by obstructing construction of new coal-fired power plants.

Among those who deserve genuine appreciation: former Gov. Kenny Guinn, who made the U.S. 95 project one of the state’s highest priorities; Sen. John Ensign, who actually put some heat on the Sierra Club to drop or settle its lawsuit; Clark County Commissioner Rory Reid, who helped finalize the settlement with the Sierra Club that allowed the widening to go forward; and all the NDOT administrators, planners and contractors who moved at warp speed to get the job done once the courts were removed from the equation.

The U.S. 95 project isn’t perfect, but it buys a lot time — for motorists and the valley at large. The West’s biggest boom town finally has its first stretch of 10-lane highway.

It’s a moment of progress worth commemorating.