Highway Project to Give Easier Access to WMC

February 2, 2006  by in UnCategorized   

By Home Furnishings Business in on February 2006 It's going to be a lot easier to access the World Market Center in Las Vegas from Interstate 15 in a few years if a massive public works project from the Nevada Department of Transportation goes as planned.

Project Neon, a proposed widening and improvement of the portion of Interstate 15 that runs west of the Strip and past the WMC to its intersection with U.S. Highway 95 - locally known as the "Spaghetti Bowl" - includes a new exit that would deposit northbound drivers onto Bonneville Ave., practically at the WMC's doorstep.

Currently, drivers and shuttle buses must cross under I-15 and travel several blocks south on Martin Luther King Drive before accessing the interstate to get to the large strip hotels south of downtown. This week, shuttles either exited I-15 several blocks south of the WMC, or drove past the market buildings to downtown before doubling back to the center.

"Right now we're still in the study phase for Project Neon and hope to have the environmental impact study to the Federal Highway Administration by summer," said Raquel Torres, public information officer for Project Neon at the Nevada DOT. "Construction would start in 2009."

In addition to new exits, the project would widen I-15 to six lanes on both north- and south-bound sides, and involve the widening and improvement of existing ramps to improve traffic flow.