The Nevada Department of Transportation (NDOT) would need to accelerate at least $899 million in Las Vegas freeway improvements if a new stadium opens by 2019 at either of the two sites under consideration by the dome’s developers, according to a report released Thursday by Gov. Brian Sandoval’s office.
The report shows much of the costs would be dedicated to projects that add high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes.
In a document filed Monday with the Legislature, NDOT reported the stadium would have no fiscal impact on the agency.
Sandoval requested the study last month, saying he wanted to determine traffic impacts and the cost of road upgrades needed to support a $1.9 billion stadium. A 62-acre area northwest of Russell Road and Interstate 15 and the 140-acre Bali Hai Golf Club, between Interstate 15 and Las Vegas Boulevard, just south of Russell, are the two leading locations for the stadium.
CH2M was paid $150,000 to examine the traffic impacts that a 65,000-seat stadium—the proposed home of the NFL’s Oakland Raiders and the UNLV football team—would bring to the two resort corridor sites, according to NDOT.
The company recommended adding one lane of traffic in each direction of Interstate 15 as well as adding carpool lanes between Tropicana Avenue and Blue Diamond Road for $274 million; building five direct-access ramps from the carpool lane to five exits along I-15, including Harmon and Hacienda avenues, for $400 million; rebuilding the Tropicana Avenue interchange at I-15 for $150 million; building carpool-lane ramps directly connecting I-15 and the 215 Beltway for $75 million.
The improvements are already planned for construction between 2020 and 2035, but they remain essentially unfunded.
