Contractor, design OK’d for $305M I-15/Tropicana interchange project

After a month of meetings, Station Casinos representatives and transportation officials came to an agreement Monday on plans for a $305 million rebuild of the Interstate 15-Tropicana Avenue interchange.

As a result, the Nevada Board of Transportation unanimously approved the design and awarded the contract for the massive road improvement project to Kiewit Infrastructure West. Member Virginia Valentine, who is president of the Nevada Resort Association, abstained, noting that she works with Station Casinos on occasion.

The project will completely transform the area and is viewed as a vital transportation upgrade for traffic leading into the south end of the Las Vega Strip, Allegiant Stadium and T-Mobile Arena.

The project will revamp the southbound I-15 to eastbound Tropicana flyover ramp and reconfigure Dean Martin to run underneath Tropicana and eliminate the signaled intersection at Tropicana.

Station Casino executives initially expressed concern with the signalized intersection not being included in the project. However, after meeting with officials from NDOT and Kiewit, they agreed to keeping that aspect out of the project.

The two sides did agree on eight additions to the plan to suit Station’s needs for the future use of approximately 100 acres it owns where the Wild Wild West property sits now, on the northwest corner of Tropicana and Dean Martin. Station tentatively plans to build a mega resort on the site.

Those additions include extending various left turn lanes to be able to better accommodate traffic tied to businesses in the area, including Station’s tentative resort.

“As we did the modeling and we looked at this as a group, we confirmed those areas are areas for opportunity for improvement,” said Station Casinos senior vice president of development Scott Kreeger. “That may require some right of way easement on our side… basically everything that we’ve asked for, spare the signalized intersection at Dean Martin and Tropicana.”

None of the additions are expected to impact the project’s timeline. It is expected to get underway sometime next year, with completion expected at the end of 2024. That also means $50 million in federal funding earmarked for the project will not be impacted; state officials had worried that a substantial change to the design could lead to a delay in the project.

Contact Mick Akers at makers@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2920. Follow @mickakers on Twitter.