Posted on 12/29/2018 8:11:58 AM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
A city with historic origins made history again when the first new federal interstate in almost 30 years opened in town.
On Aug. 9, federal, state and local officials gathered at a scenic overlook on Interstate 11 in Boulder City to officially open the highway.
“When we work (and) collaborate together, we reach great heights, like today,” said Mayor Rod Woodbury.
The 15-mile stretch of I-11 runs from Henderson to the Hoover Dam and goes around Boulder City. It is expected to reduce travel times between those areas by as much as 30 minutes, according to the Nevada Department of Transportation.
NDOT and the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada worked jointly on the road, which cost $318 million. It was paid for through federal and state funds with Clark County’s fuel revenue indexing tax.
Boulder City resident and state Sen. Joe Hardy Jr. reminisced about his time on the Boulder City Council, when he realized something needed to be done to make travel faster and traffic safer.
“This could not have happened without Republicans and Democrats not only reaching across the aisle but cooperating across the aisle,” he said.
He also said that rather than being known as the Boulder City Bypass, I-11 should be known as Boulder City’s Gateway to Nevada.
City Manager Al Noyola called the opening monumental and an important step in transforming the city to meet the changes coming in the 21st century.
The celebration, witnessed by a small herd of bighorn sheep overlooking the interstate, featured performances by Boulder City High School’s marching band and cheerleaders, along with the Vegas Golden Knights’ Drumbots and cheerleaders.
Numerous elected officials, including Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto and Dean Heller, Reps. Dina Titus and Ruben Kihuen and county Commissioners Larry Brown and Jim Gibson, thanked those who worked on the interstate and noted the collaborative spirit that enabled its construction.
As the interstate takes traffic around town, there have been some concerns about how that will hurt local businesses.
“I think it means we’re going to have some certainty about the impacts,” said Woodbury. “There will be both opportunities and challenges.”
Instead of hurting businesses, he thinks it could help them.
“I think they’ll find more people will visit because of less traffic,” he said.
“This will be good for the city, especially with all the traffic crippling it right now,” said former Mayor Roger Tobler, who was instrumental in getting the project started.
Tobler said he worked with all the businesses along Boulder City Parkway, and the vast majority of them want the bypass.
Though in the short term there will have to be some adjustments to people’s habits of patronizing businesses along the stretch west of Buchanan Boulevard, Tobler said, the mid-term and long-term prospects for success look good.
Boulder City Chamber of Commerce CEO Jill Rowland-Lagan said she also thinks there will be more local opportunities with I-11 open as people will see how easy it is to get to town.
“It’s a great place to go, and they can get there quick,” she said.
The interstate is the first step in linking Las Vegas to Phoenix, and it’s set to eventually stretch from Mexico to Canada.
About 500 people attended the grand opening.
Considering the community’s disrespect for the constitution, zero federal money should have been spent on this. Let them instead choke on their traffic.
Oops! My lack-of-caffeine error! This is Boulder City in Nevada, NOT Colorado!
No need to apologize - Boulder CO rezidents would never lower themselves from their liberal all-inclusive community to be identified as a city … “Bolder Boulder” indeed!
PING.
Now they’ve got to get the part between I-40 and Wickenburg, AZ finished. Lots of busy and dangerous two-lane stretches still remaining.
It does reduce travel time bypassing Boulder City. The landscaping on the roadside is very impressive.
Hell they are still arguing over the interchange at I 40 and 93 at Kingman. WTH they cant simply take off from 93 east of Kingman and go right up to Dolan Springs and connect I dunno.
GD Kingman and their good ol boys club. I pointed out that any of the west bound traffic will go through Kingman anyway. Also, the interchange is nearly already there if the swing south along the Cerbat Hills on the Goldne Valley side and connect at the Old Rt 66 and I 40 section. All they’d need is about 5 to 6 miles of new road and one overpass and an upgrade at the Rt 66 and I 40 interchange. Instead, they wanna come down the hill and try and connect at the Clackman Canyon somewhere. All that rock cutting and two overpasses and hard to build new road.
Right now, if anyone is familiar with the present situation, nearly everyday traffic backs up over Coyote pass nearly to the 93 highway 68 interchange. What a friggan mess.
I was more thinking between vegas and Reno my own self. But it ain’t likely I’ll ever see that.
Make that Clacks Canyon. Geez.
Point is, they are intending to swing that to Kingman and add more miles to the system. Building a road straight off from 93 at the 93 and I 40 to Dolan Springs wouldnt be that hard. That road could go through Hackberry and up and connect at/near Dolan Springs.
Dont think the trucks stops/businesses at Kingman havent had anything to say about it?
Anything that gets me to Vegas quicker I’m in favor of! LOL!
I always hated driving from Phoenix to LV because it was a nightmare between Hoover Dam and LV. So much that when traveling between Alaska and Tucson I would take 17 north in Phoenix and go via Flagstaff on US 89 through Page and cut over on Utah 20 to I-15.
I hated that drive between Las Vegas and Phoenix which required you to go through downtown Boulder and over Hoover Dam on a narrow road with a 15 mph speed limit.
Yes! Drove that last night. Almost the worst part of our Phoenix to Tahoe drive.
It doesn’t deserve a two digit number. As a bypass, it should have a three digit number. Keeping 515 would have been OK, although it should start with an even number. Or, better yet, give it a federal highway designation. Calling it Interstate 11 is also wrong since it is east of I-15. Sounds like it was all just a scam to fleece the taxpayers.
Yep. Undivided two lane traffic highways are head-on death traps.
When complete, I-11 will begin at Tucson, bypass Phoenix to the south and west, take over US-93 to where the current I-11 picks up, take over US-95 to Reno, then take over US-395 all the way to the Canadian border. It’s intended to be primarily a truck route.
Actually, this is only the first part of Interstate 11, which is eventually going to connect LV and Phoenix, and then maybe run all the way from Canada to Mexico.
I’ve traveled this new I-11 route twice now and can confirm it does NOT reduce any time on the road between the Hoover Dam bridge and Las Vegas. What it does is allow everyone on it to continue at 65+mph. It adds about 8 miles to the previous route which went through a part of Boulder City. Now if someone wants to risk a ticket going 90 mph on the new road they can probably reduce some time. Not much but some.
What this new road also did was take away all the drive-by traffic for the multitudes of small business on one little stretch of road in Boulder City that catered to food, gas, and tourism business. I was there just 2 weeks ago during lunch time for a business reason and couldn’t help but notice the empty parking lots in all the businesses that used to be bustling before the route change.
This kind of thing is nothing new. Interstate 40 caused Rt 66 businesses and lots of small towns to die off. Some towns kind of reinvented themselves as tourist spots while others are still destitute or just gone. Williams, near the Grand Canyon, which became the “Gateway to the Grand Canyon” thrived while just down the Interstate; Ashford is still barely hanging on. Still further down, Seligman, has maintained while neither dying nor thriving. Probably due to its remote location as a rest, food, and gas stop. It’s actually a quaint little town.
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