Chetak Development (Chetak) is facilitating construction of the first new intersection on the Las Vegas Strip in 60 years, at Russell Road and Las Vegas Boulevard.
The proposed intersection would create the first major connection from I-15 to the Strip for traffic arriving from California and serve as the gateway to a new south Strip bypass road, extending from Russell Road to Tropicana Avenue.
Chetak is in final negotiations with Object Dash, LLC to erect two Boring stations to the northeast of the proposed new NBA Diamond Arena and to the west of the arena. The agreement would also allow provide land necessary to create the Las Vegas Boulevard entrance to the new bypass road.
The Route: The new route would connect I-15, through the existing Russell Road off-ramp, to the east side of Las Vegas Boulevard and then to a new four-lane roadway connecting to Haven Street, Koval Lane and ultimately Tropicana Avenue.
As part of the project, Haven Street would be extended north to Reno Avenue through land owned by the MHA Nation. This would create a new backway route allowing motorists to exit I-15 at Russell Road and travel directly to Tropicana Avenue via Haven Street and Koval Lane.
The new roadway would function much like Frank Sinatra Drive does on the west side of the Strip, providing an alternative north-south route serving the south Strip on the east side of Las Vegas Boulevard.
Landowner Support: Major landowners on the south side of the Strip were unanimous in their praise for the new intersection and bypass road.
Mark Fox, chairman of the MHA Nation, said, “MHA Nation is supportive of roadway solutions that improve the experience of both visitors and locals. The proposed Russell Road extension is exactly that kind of enhancement.”
Government Response: Governmental officials touted the benefits of the new intersection and bypass road. Clark County Commissioner James Gibson said, “I fully support projects that bring real traffic solutions after developers and their engineers work closely with the our airport and public works professionals.”
Ric Truesdell, a former 20-year planning commissioner, said, “A new intersection on the Strip is a rare thing. In forty-five years developing in Las Vegas, I’ve never seen a road improvement that provides such amazing traffic benefits with so little disruption.”
Community Benefits: The new intersection and southside bypass roads as conceived will help southside landowners such as the Las Vegas Athletics by providing ingress and egress directly to I-15 and from the east side of the community from Tropicana. It will also allow locals and tourists to quickly travel from east side hotels such as the MGM Grand directly to Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas Boulevard, the I-15 or to Allegiant Stadium without using the Tropicana and Strip intersection.
The Tropicana intersection has been cited as the busiest street intersection in the world, with daily traffic volumes approaching 100,000 vehicles and typically experiences substantial traffic delays. NDOT informally estimates that the new Strip intersection will decrease the traffic on Tropicana by an estimated 22%.
Construction Impact and Timeline: There would be virtually no impact on existing traffic during construction because most of the new road construction will be on land not previously used for roads. The land for the new bypass road would come from three sources:
- 75% from existing public roads and private landowners
- 16% from property the county acquired in 2021 that has an existing north/south road that will become part of the new road
- 9% from building over an existing county drainage ditch and placing the ditch in the middle of the new road
It is estimated that it will take 18 months to complete the project.
