As work on Henderson’s 7.5-mile stretch of the Reimagine Boulder Highway project moves toward completion next year, it’s still unknown when construction on the 7.5 miles north of that will begin.
The portion of the project outside Henderson includes multiple agencies with jurisdiction over Boulder Highway including Clark County, the city of Las Vegas, the Regional Transportation Commission and the Nevada Department of Transportation.
An environmental study and preliminary planning are underway for the corridor, being led by the RTC. The earliest work on the northern portion of the project cannot begin until the start of the next decade, according to RTC Deputy CEO Andrew Kjellman.
“The soonest it could begin, assuming everything falls into place, is essentially construction could start in 2030, but there’s a really big asterisk there in terms of ensuring that funding is available for this project,” Kjellman said. “One of the big differences between the northern half of the corridor and the southern half of the corridor is that the northern half, even though it goes through the county and the city of Las Vegas, it is an NDOT roadway. So, we’re coordinating with the state DOT heavily on this.”
Federal funding
The environmental process must be completed before RTC can apply for federal grants for the project, according to Clark County Public Works Director Denis Cederburg.
“It’s all going to depend upon funding, once they get through the environmental process to apply for the grants,” Cederburg said. “It’s a significant cost… I think it’s in the range of $300 million.”
Kjellman wouldn’t commit to Cederburg’s cost estimate, saying the RTC would have a better idea of the price once the initial planning and engineering are completed, most likely next spring.
“What we’re going to have in one year is that preliminary concept of what the corridor is going to look like, and it will be cleared environmentally,” Kjellman said. “Then we’re also going to have a more refined cost estimate at that time and then a funding plan moving forward.”
The RTC hopes to land a federal grant similar to what it received for the $378 million Maryland Parkway bus rapid transit project between Harry Reid International Airport and downtown Las Vegas, Kjellman said.
“They’re very similar bus rapid transit projects, and we really want to go after federal funding,” Kjellman said. “Maryland Parkway received $150 million from the Federal Transit Administration. So, that’s a really good model that we’re trying to follow.”
Clark County Commissioner Tick Segerblom said he’s not hopeful that the project will land federal funding under the current presidential administration.
“That’s hundreds of millions of dollars, and that’s quite a way down the road,” Segerblom said. “We need a big grant from the federal government, and I don’t think that’s going to happen anytime (soon) with the current presidency.”
Road transition
Henderson began work on its $184 million half of the Reimagine Boulder Highway project in the summer of 2024. The project, aimed at completion in mid-2027, will reduce the number of traffic lanes on the 7.5-mile stretch in Henderson from six to four, widen sidewalks, elevate bike lanes on both sides of the road and add a center-running bus rapid transit system.
After Henderson’s portion of the project is completed in 2027, the roadway will shift from the Reimagine road configuration in Henderson back to the Boulder Highway of old, with six travel lanes and bus stops at the curb. Henderson’s jurisdiction ends at the intersection of Boulder Highway at Gibson Road/Broadbent Boulevard.
“The center (bus) lanes are going to stop short of that, so stop just south and then at a signalized intersection, the buses will move over to the curbside, so the outside lanes,” Kjellman said. “So when they’re going northbound, that’s how they’re going to get out of the center running lanes. And then when they’re coming southbound, that’s how they’re going to get into the center-running lane. So, there will be a transition that’s being designed and constructed into the Henderson project.”
Temporary pedestrian safety
Looking to curb auto-pedestrian crashes on the northern portion of Boulder Highway, Clark County has been adding fences in medians along the route. Crews are adding the median fencing on Boulder Highway between Desert Inn Road and Flamingo Road, after success was seen with the initial fence installation between Flamingo and Nellis Boulevard.
Until the status of the larger Reimagine Boulder Highway project is known, the median fencing will be a suitable holdover project to increase pedestrian safety, Cederburg said.
As the RTC carries out its initial planning for the northern portion of the Reimagine Boulder Highway project, officials are looking at the potential to add median fencing where it works with the center-running bus lanes, according to Kjellman.
“What we’re doing as part of our planning study and our preliminary engineering is we’re looking at places where fencing may make sense,” Kjellman said. “It does seem like they’ve had some success with that interim fencing that they’ve put out there, and so we want to look at that and potentially build off that.”
Contact Mick Akers at makers@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2920. Follow @mickakers on X. Send questions and comments to roadwarrior@reviewjournal.com.
