The Strip’s skyline has been evolving since its conception, but so have the surrounding neighborhoods. Las Vegas’s affinity for imploding its past not only causes the valley’s history to become obsolete but also means the landscapes, roads, and neighborhoods are literally everchanging.
Las Vegas’s ability to transform itself is the only static element in the city.
Joey Arena, a 29-year-old semi-truck driver, and Las Vegas native, remembers when the 215 wasn’t finished and there was nothing to the west of it.
“I grew up in Summerlin, and me and my friends would ride our bikes around what is now Lake Mead and the 215. It used to be all dirt and is now houses,” he says. “Going to Mount Charleston on the 95 north, the last street was Ann. There was no Skye Point or Skye Canyon, and it was two lanes. Lone Mountain from Decatur up there was nothing, just a two-lane road.”
The expansion of Las Vegas has never been confined to a specific point in time, with no taxes, cheap property, and the allure of the Strip has always drawn more and more people in, whether they were seeking permanent financial shelter or a temporary good time.
A map from 1961 shows Desert Inn Road and Flamingo Road didn’t run west of the Strip, Decatur Boulevard ended at Charleston Boulevard, and Spring Mountain Road spanned from Jones Boulevard to Highland Drive. The following year, in 1962, an updated map showed Spring Mountain Road connected with Las Vegas Boulevard. Bond Road was renamed Tropicana Avenue for the Tropicana Hotel, and the I-15 was included as a proposed freeway. Sahara Avenue was called San Francisco Avenue but was renamed for the Sahara Hotel by 1963.
As new residential and commercial subdivisions pop up all across the valley, the roads have to be upgraded to accommodate the increased traffic that will be brought into the area. For example, while the Durango Casino was being built, residents finally got the much-needed traffic light on Durango Drive and Maule Avenue. Four-way stops and two-lane roads are becoming obsolete in the greater Las Vegas area.
Kenna Moody, a proposal manager at VTN a local civil engineering firm, says public safety is a top priority in the city, and it is synonymous with road safety. So, that is one of the main reasons why the traffic cone has become the new state bird.
Additional roadway construction in Las Vegas is due to needed infrastructure upgrades, increased tourism, and rapid population growth. Data from the U.S. Census Bureau shows that Clark County’s population has increased by 4.41% since 2019, and the population in 2023 was 2,366,573. By 2080, we are expected to have more than 3 million residents.
Alex Huerta, Quality Control at Las Vegas Paving, says the rate Las Vegas is growing gives residents the perception that the roadwork here is more prominent than in other cities. Still, roads need to be redone everywhere. Roads aren’t infinitely durable.
Tropicana Avenue and I-15 Project
However, he says transportation and traffic mitigation is prioritized here. That is one of the primary reasons why the Nevada Department of Transportation (NDOT) daringly embarked on the $305 million two-year project to redo the Tropicana bridge on the I-15. Huerta and Moody both said that Allegiant Stadium and T-Mobile Arena were causing too much congestion in the area and that the upgrades would improve the traffic flow.
Additionally, the bridge was built in the ‘60s and widened in the ‘90s and no longer meets federal regulations for commercial vehicles. NDOT plans to raise the bridge in order to meet federal regulations and widen it to accommodate future expansion on the rest of the I-15. They also plan to reroute Dean Martin Drive, having it go under Tropicana Avenue, removing the need for a traffic light. 52% of the funding came from federal grants awarded by the U.S. Department of Transportation and the rest came from Nevada’s gas tax.
Clark County residents voted yes for fuel tax indexing in 2013 and again in 2016. Fuel tax indexing increases the gas tax based on inflation. In 2026, Nevadans will be asked whether they want to continue fuel tax indexing or revert back to a fixed rate. Tax revenue and federal grants are how Clark County obtains financing for its massive infrastructure projects like its biggest one to date: Project Neon.
Project Neon
Project Neon, a $1 billion project that widened and improved entrance and exit ramps along 3.7 miles of the I-15 from Sahara Avenue to the Spaghetti Bowl, was completed in 2019. The construction for Phase 2 of Project Neon is expected to begin in 2027. During Phase 2, the Sahara Avenue on and off ramps will be reconstructed, a new U.S. 95, Martin Luther King Boulevard, and Alta Drive exit will be added, and a collector-distributor road will be added from the I-15 to the US-95. A collector-distributor road is basically a long exit or entrance ramp that allows motorists to bypass traffic signals.
While most of the projects set out to improve traffic flow, many of them impede it in the process. When exiting from the I-15 onto the 215 heading west, drivers idle as they creep onto the 215. Lanes are closed while workers expand the freeway by one lane in each direction. The improvements span from the I-15 to Jones and will also include resurfacing, new lighting, and signs. The $84.6 million upgrade is expected to be finished by 2025.
Huerta says that drivers’ complaints are one factor used to decide which roads to improve.
Residents can submit requests to Clark County and the city of Las Vegas to let them know about areas of town that need improvements. Then, traffic studies are conducted to see if areas meet federal regulations for traffic lights, stop signs, and other improvements. But, when all else fails, you can just make roadside posters.
Fort Apache Road and Blue Diamond Road Project
On south Fort Apache Road, there used to be a white sign stuck in the ground that read “Please fix this road” in black Sharpie. The sign maker’s plead was heard. Pieces of Fort Apache Road have been under construction for years now. On March 18th, Fort Apache Road was closed in both directions just south of Pebble Road to Blue Diamond Road. This portion of the road will be widened to two lanes, a bike lane will be added, and a street light will be installed at the intersection of Fort Apache Road and Ford Avenue.
Huerta said Fort Apache Road needed to be expanded because as it becomes a more heavily trafficked roadway, a two-lane road (one lane in each direction) could become unsafe. Then, planners expect the southern parts of the valley to continue to grow and want the roads to be able to accommodate for future traffic. The improvements will cost $13.2 million and will hopefully make turning left onto Pebble Road from Fort Apache less stress-inducing.
Even though residents complain about roads that need saving, Huerta says most locals are very upset when roads are being done.
Arena says the 215 between Eastern Avenue and Lake Mead Parkway is “dog sh*t.” “Every time I drive through it, I make a comment, oh, here is the whoop section.” At the same time, he finds the roadwork “annoying.”
Moody says, “I am happy when a roadway or any construction project is kicked off. It shows that our tax money is going to fund a safer and nicer city for us to live in.”
Years of planning and hard work go into each project that is started in the valley; there are so many in the works, and so many are still in the design phase. Huerta and Moody both said when the traffic cones are finally cleared, the projects are successful and we see less intense traffic in those areas.
So, maybe our new state bird is just a necessary evil. Even when I bash my side mirror into the neon cylinders, I am still happy we don’t live in a dilapidated, forgotten-about city. I second Moody’s point, when spent on construction, our tax dollars actually benefit us.
