Sunset Road bridge over Interstate 15 opens
After months of ramp closures, detours and lane restrictions, Las Vegas motorists finally are benefiting from the state’s Interstate 15 design-build south project with the much-anticipated opening of the Sunset Road bridge over the freeway on Thursday.
The $22.6 million span that stretches from Valley View Boulevard on the west to Las Vegas Boulevard to the east is a welcomed new corridor for residents, commuters and businesses, said Rudy Malfabon, deputy director of the Nevada Department of Transportation.
"This offers more east-west mobility to people who work in the area and live in the area," Malfabon said. "It’s a great way to cut across town."
The new four-lane road borders the north side of Town Square and offers easier access to the shopping center.
Now that the bridge is opened, Las Vegas Paving crews will begin work on the Warm Springs Road bridge across Interstate 15.
That decades-old span will be torn down next month and replaced with a new four-lane bridge that should be opened by late summer.
While the major road project has its long-term benefits, businesses can suffer during construction, Malfabon admitted. "You can give your business to some of those businesses (along Warm Springs), who will be calling me when the bridge opens," he said.
The bridge is a significant part of the state transportation agency’s $250 million Interstate 15 design-build south project, which also include widening I-15 and adding frontage roads on both sides of the freeway.
The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority is funding the bulk of the endeavor through room taxes.
At a brief ceremony Thursday morning, Jeremy Handel, a public relations specialist with the visitors authority, emphasized the importance of the project to tourists.
"Interstate 15 is a critical corridor," he said. "It’s important for us to step up and make sure we maintain the corridor for our visitors."
Each year, about 8 million visitors from Southern California arrive in Las Vegas via Interstate 15.
The project is designed so that frontage roads can serve motorists accessing businesses on the west side of the freeway or the Strip and Interstate 15 will be more of an expressway.
The state’s design-build approach is a speedier method of completing a project than the more traditional design-bid-build model.
The same company, in this case Las Vegas Paving, designs and constructs the project, shaving about a year and a half off the time to finish the job. The I-15 work is expected to be completed in spring 2012.
Contact reporter Adrienne Packer at apacker@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2904.
