The rain will not delay plans to close one lane on I-15 Monday night. At 9:00 p.m., southbound I-15 from Lake Mead Boulevard to the Spaghetti Bowl will be reduced to two lanes.

It's part of a 13-month construction project that will mean lots of delays for drivers. A major widening project will take I-15 down to two lanes southbound.

On Friday, northbound 15 will also be reduced to two lanes — no doubt creating headaches, problems and frustration for drivers.

Read more about the project

The total cost is $240 million. This will be a massive design build project completed in just over a year. When it is finished, engineers say traffic will flow through the area better than today.

“Unless somebody finds an alternative route, or there is a miracle that happens, it is going to be heavily congested,” said Bob McKenzie with NDOT.

McKenzie points drivers to their web site for alternate routes. He says drivers already tested the detours this morning, “We were very pleased when we looked at the traffic this morning on the cameras that it had shaken out.”

While some businesses say they're not happy about the extra traffic, other businesses welcome it. In fact, one group hopes to capitalize on it.

One of the alternate routes is Rancho, forcing drivers to go right past Catholic Charities Thrift Store.

“I think that it is true — we are going to see a lot more people drive down Rancho. Anybody who wanted to donate anything to Catholic Charities could drop off right here at this store on Rancho,” said Sharon Mann with the charity.

Mann plans on adding another donation welcome sign, as well as a drop off box for the early morning commuters, “So when people drive down Rancho, they can see there is a lot of help out in the community for anyone who needs it.”

Mann says 60-percent more people are asking for help because of the sluggish economy. At the same time, donations are dropping. Ultimately she hopes a little inconvenience for drivers on I-15 will mean a lot more help for the needy.

The interstate construction will last until August of 2009. That means more cars on Rancho until then, and a years worth of advertising for donations for Catholic Charities.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 14th, 2008 at 8:48 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.