Paul Szydelko
A 44-hour emergency closure of northbound Interstate 15 between Los Angeles and Las Vegas last month had thousands of motorists fuming, but any improvement to the vital link is still years away.
A truck carrying six large lithium batteries in a container that weighed more than 75,000 pounds overturned near Baker, Calif., shortly before 8 a.m. on July 26. A subsequent fire, particularly hazardous because of the chemicals and toxic gases involved, prompted officials to close the northbound lanes as a precaution.
Motorists heading north were rerouted from Barstow, Calif., south on Interstate 40, but that, too, became a virtual parking lot in the triple-digit heat. Twenty- to 30-mile stretches of that road were taking two to three hours to traverse, according to news reports.
As the danger subsided, Interstate 15 reopened the morning of July 28. The cause of the accident is still being investigated.
One motorist called it "a traffic apocalypse from hell," and there were many social media reports of people sleeping in their vehicles overnight.
Politicians join outcry
Although the economic impact of the weekend closure will be difficult to assess, the importance of Interstate 15 to Las Vegas cannot be overstated. In response to the incident, southern Nevada politicians renewed their calls for upgrades.
"While we look forward to a future that Brightline (a high-speed rail line) may provide for travelers … the work that should have begun years ago for the vehicular traffic on I-15 now is putting lives at risk as gridlock -- with no shoulders -- is being ignored," Las Vegas mayor Carolyn Goodman said in a text message to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
"Whatever it takes, we need to enhance, improve and protect I-15. It's our lifeline," Clark County commissioner Tick Segerblom told the newspaper. He said he hopes to find ways to help the state pay for another lane or other improvements. "Without I-15, we're dead," he said.
Interstate 15's average daily auto traffic count at the Nevada-California state line in June was 48,114, a 2.2% increase from June 2023, according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. That includes commercial, pass-through and resident traffic in addition to visitors.
About 32% of all Las Vegas visitors are from California, whether they're driving or flying, the LVCVA estimates.
High-speed train prospects
Although a ceremony was held in April for Brightline West's 218-mile, all-electric high-speed rail system between Las Vegas and Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., in suburban San Bernardino County), that potential solution to I-15's traffic woes won't be ready until 2028 at the earliest.
The rail service, primarily in the freeway's median at speeds of up to 180 mph, would take about two hours, or about half the time it takes to drive the route. Overhead electrical lines would power the trains. In addition to the end points, stations in Hesperia and Victor Valley, Calif., are planned.
Fares for the train have not been released, but Wes Edens, Brightline's founder and chairman, noted at the ceremony that prices would probably fluctuate, depending on demand, seasons and other factors, to stay competitive with airfare and driving costs.
Permits and rights-of-way have been secured, and public funding for about half of the project's $12 billion cost is promised. The federal government awarded Brightline West $3 billion from the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, and the Biden administration has enabled the project to borrow $3.5 billion through tax-exempt bonds
But numerous other questions about the remaining private financing remain, and technical and environmental hurdles still must be addressed. Among them are the extreme temperatures in which the train would operate.
"Two trains are set to share a single track through the middle of a desert, leaving it susceptible to high heat and wind throughout much of the year. We will have to compensate for these environmental factors when laying the track," Harry Teng, a railroad engineering professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, told the university's news website.
Teng, a commissioner for the Nevada High Speed Rail Authority, noted that high-speed rails in the Middle East have been constructed under similar extreme conditions.
"To lay rails on the railroad track, you need to know the highest and lowest temperatures the track will be subject to throughout the year and the track geometrics such as horizontal and vertical curves. From there, we plug those numbers into a formula that will determine what air temperature it must be when the tracks are laid."