Traffic will be getting a lot more chaotic for Las Vegas Beltway motorists who live in northwestern Summerlin, now that construction of three interchanges is in the works. But that's only for the short term -- like the next couple of years.
When it's all finished, sometime around the end of 2009, traffic lights along the temporary Beltway intersections at Far Hills Drive and Summerlin Parkway will be eliminated. That means the 215 will run uninterrupted in a westerly direction from Green Valley well past Summerlin.
It also means that new bridge structures will have been completed over the super highway, eliminating those current traffic obstacles at Far Hills Drive and Summerlin Parkway. And it will mean that an entirely new intersection will have been created along the Beltway, entering and exiting at Lake Mead Boulevard.
For some, the whole thing couldn't come soon enough. Others view it as their worst nightmare.
Residents of Sun City have been fighting the impending intersection at Lake Mead Boulevard for more than a decade, irrespective of the fact it has been a part of the 215 blueprint since well before the start of Beltway construction in 1992. Their concern is that the intersection will bring heavier volumes of traffic onto Lake Mead Boulevard, which bisects the senior community. And with that added traffic, they envision the potential for a higher crime rate.
During a discussion at a recent filled-to-capacity residents' forum in Sun City, Las Vegas Councilman Larry Brown of Ward Four sought to appease an audience that expressed not just consternation, but vulnerability to the possibilities of increased crime impacting from the new interchange.
Brown said the plan was to temporarily barricade the Lake Mead exit upon completion of the interchange. But it would remain that way only until the other two interchanges have been completed. Brown noted that in the meantime, efforts would be explored to assuage residents' fears by upgrading security in the Sun City area.
He also disclosed that once the Lake Mead-Beltway interchange is opened, development of a whole new community of housing is expected to begin on the western side of the 215. Brown said Pulte Homes is awaiting the access to begin building 1,500 houses on 300 acres.
In essence, what Brown and Denis Cederburg, director of the Clark County Public Works Department, were really telling the Sun City folks is that despite any objections or impediments, the Beltway project will proceed as planned. Some residents raised environmental questions, such as ones dealing with air and noise pollution issues. Other residents expressed engineering concerns about road design. Still others cited the potential for more crime in a senior community that heretofore has been virtually crime-free.
Cederburg put the project and its time line into perspective when he explained that the $12 million Lake Mead intersection, which has been under construction since October, is earmarked for completion by August. But he emphasized that it will remain closed until the $72 million Far Hills Drive and Summerlin Parkway portions of the project are completed. And that won't be for about 20 months after the first shovels hit the ground, which, according to present scheduling, puts completion somewhere near the end of 2009.
Bids for the portion of Beltway just from Charleston Boulevard to Far Hills Drive won't even be opened for another month or two, which means the earliest construction can begin is April. The roadway and bridges at Far Hills Drive and Summerlin Parkway, together with construction of the Beltway proper from Charleston Boulevard to Cheyenne Avenue, are all part of the same immediate project, destined for completion within the next two years.
Thus, any delay in opening the Lake Mead intersection is not intended to pacify Sun City residents. It's meant to avoid adding that boosted traffic to the scene.
Herb Jaffe was an op-ed columnist and investigative reporter for most of his 39 years at The Star-Ledger of Newark, N.J. He is the author of the novel "Falling Dominoes." Contact him at HJaffe@cox.net.
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