Spaghetti Bowl | |
---|---|
Location | |
Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. | |
Coordinates | 36°10′27″N115°09′20″W / 36.174119°N 115.155644°W |
Roads at junction | |
Construction | |
Type | Interchange |
Constructed | 1960s and 1999–2000 |
Opened | 1968[1] |
Maintained by | NDOT |
The Spaghetti Bowl is the colloquial name for a freeway interchange in downtown Las Vegas, Nevada. It is the system interchange between Interstate 11, Interstate 15, U.S. Route 93 and U.S. Route 95, which also includes a service interchange with Martin Luther King Boulevard.
The interchange, which was substantially rebuilt between 1999 and 2000, carries more than 300,000 cars and trucks per day.[ as of? ]
The original Spaghetti Bowl was constructed in the mid 1960s by Kiewit Corporation and was completed by 1968. [1] Upon completion, the interchange connected I-15 to the new, cross-town Las Vegas Expressway. That highway, which carried US 95 (relocated from Bonanza Road) and was later renamed in honor of Oran K. Gragson, served as a mile-long spur to Las Vegas Boulevard in downtown Las Vegas on the east and eventually served as a new bypass of Rancho Drive for US 95 traffic to the west and north.
Between 1982 and 1994, the US 95 freeway was extended to the east (concurrent with US 93) past downtown and then southeast toward Henderson, Nevada, eventually being co-designated as I-515. Also in the 1980s, new interchanges, including one with a new feeder freeway, the Summerlin Parkway, were constructed along the US 95 Gragson Freeway to the west and northwest of the Spaghetti Bowl. The increased traffic on the cross-town freeway left the I-15 interchange, with its two loop ramps, several closely spaced ramps and no ramp wider than one lane, totally inadequate; it had been designed to carry only about 60,000 vehicles a day.
In the late 1990s, NDOT began a reconstruction project at the interchange, with new, wider ramps and elimination of the loops. By November 1999, ramps had been built and opened to provide access in all directions to and from nearby Martin Luther King Boulevard (except for an onramp to US 95 north), which had only partial access in the prior configuration. The overall project was completed in August 2000 with the opening of the new flyovers and other reconfigured freeway-to-freeway ramps.
On May 22, 2015, there was a magnitude 4.8 earthquake several miles north of Las Vegas near the town of Caliente. This earthquake caused what appeared to be damage to the southbound US 95 ramp to southbound Interstate 15 and the Nevada Highway Patrol shut down the ramp around 12:20 p.m. local time. Upon further inspection by the Nevada Department of Transportation (NDOT), the quake dislodged protective rubber encasing a previously-damaged bridge joint. With no structural damage caused by the earthquake, the ramp was reopened around 5:00 p.m. the same day. [2]
HOV connectors were added from I-15 north to I-11/US 95 north and from I-11/US 95 south to I-15 south.[ when? ] On I-15 south of the interchange, collector-distributor roads were constructed to eliminate traffic bottleneck and weaving on I-15 south between the Sahara Avenue and Charleston Boulevard interchanges and the I-11/US 95 ramps. [3]
Interstate 515 (I-515) was a 20.54-mile-long (33.06 km) spur route of I-15 in the US state of Nevada that ran from the junction of I-15, US 93 and US 95 in Downtown approximately 20 miles (32 km) southeast to just north of Railroad Pass in southeastern Henderson. The freeway connected traffic headed from Boulder City and Henderson to Downtown Las Vegas via a direct, high-speed route, and it ran concurrently with, US 93, and US 95 along its entire length.
Spaghetti junction is a nickname sometimes given to a complex or massively intertwined road traffic interchange that is said to resemble a plate of spaghetti. Such interchanges may incorporate a variety of interchange design elements in order to maximize connectivity.
Interstate 695 (I-695) is a 51.46-mile-long (82.82 km) auxiliary Interstate Highway that constitutes a beltway extending around Baltimore, Maryland, United States. I-695 is officially designated the McKeldin Beltway but is colloquially referred to as either the Baltimore Beltway or 695. The route is an auxiliary route of I-95, intersecting that route southwest of Baltimore near Arbutus and northeast of the city near White Marsh. It also intersects other major roads radiating from the Baltimore area, including I-97 near Glen Burnie, the Baltimore–Washington Parkway near Linthicum, I-70 near Woodlawn, I-795 near Pikesville, and I-83 in the Timonium area. The 19.37-mile (31.17 km) portion of the Baltimore Beltway between I-95 northeast of Baltimore and I-97 south of Baltimore is officially Maryland Route 695 (MD 695) and is not part of the Interstate Highway System but is signed as I-695. The Francis Scott Key Bridge that crossed over the Patapsco River was included in this section of the route before the bridge's collapse on March 26, 2024. The bridge and its approaches were maintained by the Maryland Transportation Authority (MDTA), while the remainder of the Baltimore Beltway is maintained by the Maryland State Highway Administration (MDSHA).
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Interstate 580 (I-580) is a 35.019-mile (56.358 km) auxiliary Interstate Highway in Western Nevada. It runs concurrently with US Route 395 (US 395) from an intersection with US 50 near the southern boundary of Carson City to the Reno Spaghetti Bowl interchange with I-80 in Reno. The freeway provides a high-speed direct route between Lake Tahoe and Carson City to Reno and I-80.
The Las Vegas Beltway is a 50-mile (80 km) beltway route circling three-quarters of the Las Vegas Valley in southern Nevada. The Las Vegas Beltway carries two numerical designations. 11.1 miles (17.9 km) of the highway, from its southern terminus at Interstate 11 (I-11) / U.S. Route 93 (US 93) / US 95 in Henderson west and northwest to I-15, is signed as Interstate 215 (I-215) and maintained by the Nevada Department of Transportation. Clark County Route 215 (CC 215) composes the remaining approximately 38.9 miles (62.6 km) of this semi-circumferential highway, with the county's Department of Public Works responsible for all construction and maintenance. The beltway is a freeway up to Interstate Highway standards in its entirety.
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