Skip to main content

2018 Mojave Desert Road Trip Part 6; The Labyrinth of Las Vegas Boulevard

By
Even though I had stopped in Las Vegas a couple times on my way to excursions in Arizona and Utah in the last couple years the last real time I was on Las Vegas Boulevard was back in 2012.  Suffice to say I found some substantial differences that I noticed even from the last time I visited.


Upon my arrival in Las Vegas I learned that a small segment of Las Vegas Boulevard at the intersection of Tropicana Avenue was still under state maintenance in conversation about the 500s series of highways in Clark County.  Said conversation on AAroads web forum can be found here:

What happened to the 500 series highway shields in Las Vegas?

Apparently NDOT still maintains the intersection of Las Vegas Boulevard and Tropicana Avenue due to upgrades being made on the pedestrian bridges.  Apparently the pedestrian bridges are being worked on presently to make them look like the newer structures further north on Las Vegas Boulevard.  Once the work is complete the bridges will be turned over to Clark County and likely the NDOT maintained road will follow some time after.

 
I seem to recall the Las Vegas Boulevard/Tropicana Avenue pedestrian bridges being present when I visited back in 2001 for New Years.  Pedestrian traffic at the time was largely unobstructed from accessing Las Vegas Boulevard via the sidewalk and cross walks.  I stayed at some ramshackle hotel west on Tropicana Boulevard over I-15 and recall using the bridges to enter some of the casinos.  The view from the pedestrian bridges is pretty nice on an early morning with little traffic about.











Pedestrian access to the actual surface of Las Vegas Boulevard today apparently requires walking a mile up and down the strip to find a crossing.  I might not be remembering things clearly but I want to say there wasn't obstructing barriers preventing access to the street and there was additional cross-walks that are no longer present.  I want to say that I actually at Harmon Avenue on a cross-walk back in 2001 and 2012 to reach Paris.  Most foot traffic today seems to be routed towards actually entering the casinos given that the staircases/escalators don't seem to have a ton of continuity to them. It was almost as though the entirety of Las Vegas Boulevard is now one giant structure designed to keep people on a direct path.








Apparently the only section of Las Vegas Boulevard aside from the Tropicana intersect under state maintenance still is from Carey Avenue north to I-15 which is signed as NV 604.  I did manage to capture a NV 604 shield heading south on I-15 from Zion National Park.  Either way today Las Vegas Boulevard is a far cry from what I remember just over a decade much less back to an era when it carried US 91/466.






Speaking of the 2001 New Years I do recall standing here with my family as the countdown to midnight was going on.





I also find it extremely odd that Las Vegas has an NHL team.  The city was overdue for a professional team but I never thought it would be hockey.  Kind of makes me wonder what a Red Wings ticket would go for if they were playing Golden Knights?




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Did Caltrans just kill the G26 cutout US Route shields?

By
The US Route System was formally created by the American Association of State Highway Officials during November 1926.  Through the history of the system the only state to which has elected to maintain cutout US Route shields has been California.  The G26 series cutout US Route shields have become a favorite in the road enthusiast hobby and are generally considered to be much more visually pleasing than the standard Federal Highway Administration variant.  However, the G26 shield series appears to have been killed off on January 18, 2026, when Caltrans updated their Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices.  This blog will examine the history of the US Route shield specifications in California and what is happening with the 2026 changes.  The blog cover photo is facing towards the terminus of California State Route 136 and at a G26-2 specification US Route 395 shield.  In the background Mount Whitney can be seen in the Sierra Nevada range.   ...
3 comments
Read more

Hawaii Route 50

By
Hawaii Route 50 is the longest Sign Route on the island of Kauai at 32.6 miles.  The entirety of Hawaii Route 50 is overlaid atop Kaumualii Highway from Lihue west to the Pacific Missile Range Facility at Barking Sands. Hawaii Route 50 is one of the original 1955-era State Highway designations on Kauai.  Much of the Kaumualii Highway corridor was constructed during the sugar plantation boom of the late Hawaiian Kingdom.  The first tee beam bridge in Hawaii would be constructed along the Kaumualii Highway in 1911 at the Hanapepe.  Much of this highway would be modernized to two-lane standards through the 1930s and 1940s. This page is part of the Gribblenation Hawaii Roads series.  A compellation of all Hawaii-related media from both Gribblenation and RoadwayWiz can be found by clicking  here .  Part 1; the history of Hawaii Route 50 and Kaumualii Highway Hawaii Route 50 is the longest highway on Kauai at 32.6 miles.  The highway begins at Rice Str...
Post a Comment
Read more

Ghost Town Tuesday; Nichols, FL

By
A couple years ago I spent a lot of spare time exploring phosphate mining ghost towns in the Bone Valley of Polk County, Florida.  One ghost town in particular called Nichols on Polk County Route 676 west of Mulberry caught my eye due to a relative lack of documentation on ghosttowns.com. Nichols was created in 1905 during the early phosphate mining boom in the Bone Valley region.  For the time Nichols was unusual since it had company housing in the Nichols Mine site and private residences outside the gate.  Nichols is only about two miles west of Mulberry which probably made it a somewhat reasonable commute even by the wonky standards of the early 20th Century.  Most of the Bone Valley region was relatively remote which made commuting or homesteading impractical which is why there are so many ghost towns in the area.  The company housing section of Nichols was phased out and abandoned by 1950. The Nichols town site is largely abandoned and could "possibl...
4 comments
Read more