ViaLas Vegas Review Journal
‘Breathtaking’ view highlights coming interstate linking Las Vegas, Phoenix.
The first interstate linking Las Vegas and Phoenix will ease traffic congestion and offer a spectacular vista above Lake Mead, transportation officials promised Friday during a tour of ongoing construction.“It’s a breathtaking, panoramic view of one of the nation’s largest man-made lakes,” Nevada Department of Transportation spokesman Tony Illia said. The 15-mile stretch of Interstate 11, touted as Nevada’s “largest infrastructure project,” is expected to open by June 2018.
It will allow drivers to bypass Boulder City, a municipality of about 15,000 people.The trip will be about 30 minutes faster than taking U.S. Highway 93 through the city, and the southern route to Arizona will have a scenic overlook nestled inside the Eldorado Mountains.
The Southern
Nevada portion of the four-lane highway is expected to take as many as 34,000
vehicles a day on a U-shaped bypass south of Boulder City. The route will begin
near Henderson’s southern border and end by the O’Callaghan-Tillman Memorial
Bridge downstream from Hoover Dam“A lot of the
vehicles we see going through right now are freight,” Regional Transportation
Commission spokeswoman Monika Bertaki said.I-11 “would actually allow all of the freight to not go through the small town streets and bottleneck up.”
When Arizona finishes its portion of I-11, the highway will
become the first interstate to connect Las Vegas and Phoenix, the only two
neighboring U.S. metropolitan areas with populations of more than 1 million
that do not have a connecting interstate.
On a grander
scale, I-11 will eventually establish a new trade route between Canada and
Mexico by way of Idaho, Arizona and Nevada.
The $318 million
project is being funded with a combination of state and federal monies, as well
as local fuel-tax revenue. It is expected to create 4,000 jobs.
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