Interstate 15 is an important lifeline for both California and Las Vegas. Besides commercial, it is sweet channel travel money into Las Vegas. Years passed, However, and with more and more people visiting Sin City, I-15 could become a tagline, especially around major holidays. This past anniversary weekend see a 12-mile long traffic jams on the California/Nevada line; it takes some people nine or ten hours to return home to Southern California. Issues like these show how much I-15 needs to be expanded to handle traffic in the absence of public transit. Former California promised to do it, byoungest, like Las Vegas’ Fox 5 reportCity officials are still waiting for California to join the interstate.
In December 2021, California Governor Gavin Newsom and Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak held a press conference to Notification that California will expand part of I-15. At $12 million, Newsom says the project will be done in the summer of 2022. But 2022 comes and goes and there’s been no expansion, at least not in the way it’s supposed to. Only one mile of I-15 has been extended.
“They need to get their act together,” Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Good man speak when referring to California officials. Goodman is aware of traffic problems, bbut she’s also aware of the importance of tourism to Vegas’ industry. “For us, it’s travel. It’s conference business,” said Goodman speak. She continued, “I’m willing to go out with a shovel to show that we care about all of you from California, we want you to have a great time.” But she hopes Californians participate in expressing their frustrations about I-15 traffic to California officials. The expansion has been a long time coming. “It will be a quarter of a century we scream in California, do something about it,” Goodman speak.
But California is acting like a collector’s evader. It took two months for Fox 5 to get an answer from the California Department of Transportation. The last agency issued a statement:
Caltrans has opened a one-mile transition lane that allows drivers to easily merge from three to two lanes along southbound I-15 at the California-Nevada border. This one-mile transition has saved motorists from Las Vegas to Southern California an average of 30-40 minutes on non-holiday weekends without queuing around the border.
Plans to improve traffic conditions in the area include opening a third part-time, five-mile southbound laneway from the state line to the California Food and Agriculture station. The timing of the lane opening is still being determined as Caltrans works with our federal partners and the Southern California Association of Governments on the necessary regulatory approvals.
