Saturday, July 4, 2026 | 2 a.m.
After astir 2 years of construction, Maryland Parkway is poised to spot its biggest alteration yet: the motorboat of a new, higher-frequency autobus accelerated transit enactment this August, arsenic enactment crossed the corridor shifts toward its last phases.
The Red Line volition regenerate the RTC’s existing Route 109, expanding work frequence and introducing upgraded transit infrastructure on the 12.5-mile route. The task is portion of a broader propulsion by the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada and section governments to modernize cardinal corridors crossed the valley, including a large safety-focused redesign present underway connected Boulder Highway.
“Maryland Parkway is our astir productive transit way extracurricular of Las Vegas Boulevard, and truthful that’s truly wherefore this task is truthful important to truly remake the corridor to lucifer however the assemblage uses it,” said Andrew Kjellman, lawman CEO astatine the RTC. “The eventual conception that we are gathering close now, it truly serves each modes, and truthful it’s going to beryllium a faster, much pleasant acquisition for our transit riders.”
Stretching from the South Strip Transit Terminal adjacent Gilespie Street to the Las Vegas Medical District adjacent Charleston Boulevard, the Maryland Parkway corridor serves astir 63,000 residents and 109,000 jobs. Each day, astir 35,000 vehicles and 9,000 transit riders question the route, making it 1 of the busiest successful the RTC system.
Construction began successful August 2024 and is present successful its aboriginal stages crossed overmuch of the corridor. Crews are wrapping up cleanup enactment adjacent the Medical District and downtown Las Vegas, portion further inferior enactment is scheduled successful the coming weeks betwixt Russell Road and Flamingo Road. Two lanes successful each absorption volition stay unfastened during that work, according to the RTC.
Farther north, betwixt Desert Inn Road and Sahara Avenue, crews proceed sidewalk construction, paving connected the eastbound broadside of the roadway and installation of tempest drains and fibre optic lines. Most enactment wrong the metropolis of Las Vegas jurisdiction is expected to beryllium implicit aboriginal this month, including upgraded transit shelters and roadway striping.
Because the task spans some metropolis of Las Vegas and unincorporated Clark County jurisdictions, operation has been divided into phases with antithetic timelines, Kjellman said.
When complete, the corridor volition see enhanced autobus shelters, expanded lighting, further landscaping, wider sidewalks and dedicated lanes for buses and cyclists successful galore sections. Major stops volition see Harry Reid International Airport, UNLV, Boulevard Mall, Sunrise Hospital and downtown Las Vegas.
The Red Line is acceptable to statesman work astatine the extremity of August, with buses arriving each 12 minutes alternatively of each 15. Kjellman called the motorboat a infinitesimal “signifying the extremity of dense operation connected the corridor, but besides the commencement of this brand-new work to our valley.”
Not each conception volition see dedicated autobus lanes. In the Medical District on Alta Drive, for example, abstraction constraints bounds that option, portion successful different areas — specified arsenic Carson Avenue — thoroughfare parking was removed to accommodate the caller route.
At UNLV, wherever operation has importantly reshaped Maryland Parkway successful beforehand of the main campus, officials accidental the caller strategy volition amended entree for students.
“We’re precise excited that the RTC has created the Bus Rapid Transit strategy and we tin each spot Maryland Parkway getting adjacent to its completion,” UNLV interim President Chris Heavey said. “So, we’re precise excited to spot that Bus Rapid Transit strategy travel online, which volition let overmuch amended nationalist proscription options (for) students wanting to entree the campus.”
Some last enactment connected the confederate information of the corridor successful unincorporated Clark County volition widen into 2027 owed to worldly timelines and remaining punch-list items, Kjellman said.
Across the valley, a abstracted effort is underway to alteration different heavy traveled — and historically unsafe — roadway.
On Boulder Highway, a much than $172 cardinal task led by the metropolis of Henderson is reimagining the 15.4-mile corridor, which was built successful 1931 to link downtown Las Vegas with Railroad Pass successful Henderson but present runs done dense residential and commercialized areas.
A 2020 RTC survey recovered that astir 10% of each pedestrian fatalities successful Nevada occurred connected Boulder Highway, Kjellman said, underscoring the request for information improvements.
After the Nevada Department of Transportation transferred ownership of the roadway wrong Henderson metropolis limits, the metropolis launched a multiphase redesign effort successful summertime 2024. The task is funded done a operation of section and national sources, including the Transit-Oriented Development Planning programme nether the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
Plans for the corridor see upgraded lighting, improved concern access, wider sidewalks, caller crosswalks, protected motorcycle facilities, further landscaping and redesigned autobus stops placed successful the roadway median to marque crossings safer.
Earlier this year, the task reached its halfway point. Crews person installed much than 20,000 feet of underground tempest drains, activated astir 400 caller streetlights and constructed 7,800 quadrate yards of reddish factual autobus stops.
In May, Henderson Mayor Michelle Romero called the advancement “a large measurement guardant successful making Boulder Highway safer for everyone who uses it.”
With astir underground infrastructure present complete, enactment has shifted to much disposable improvements, including landscaping and streetscape features, said Steven Conner, a elder technologist with the metropolis of Henderson.
“Now we’re putting successful each the beautification portions of the task wherever the nationalist volition beryllium capable to spot each the hard enactment that the teams enactment in, truthful overall, the project’s astatine fund (and) the project’s astatine the existent schedule,” Conner said. “In the end, this task not lone enhances the area, but it’s a information task and it’s to assistance prevention lives.”
The corridor present includes 2 trails and elevated rhythm tracks, and crews are steadily installing caller transit shelters, with a extremity of adding 2 to 3 per period moving north.
After that phase, crews volition repave the roadway, instal underground fibre optic lines and implicit electrical enactment for upgraded autobus infrastructure. The Henderson information of the task is scheduled for completion by August 2027.
Planning is besides underway for the bluish agelong of Boulder Highway, from Broadbent Boulevard to Charleston Boulevard. The RTC, successful concern with authorities and section agencies, is utilizing $4.3 cardinal successful assistance backing to survey redesign options for that 7.5-mile segment.
Preliminary concepts are expected by aboriginal 2027, though Kjellman said backing remains “the large obstruction to this task moving forward,” leaving a timeline for operation uncertain.
While officials stress the semipermanent benefits of some projects, they admit the disruptions that person travel with them — from reduced concern postulation to delays for commuters and students navigating operation zones.
The RTC has attempted to mitigate those impacts done regular communication, sending play updates to much than 26,000 residents and businesses on the Maryland Parkway corridor and reaching implicit 90,000 radical regular done societal media, according to bureau data.
“We cognize it’s challenging,” Kjellman said. “We are truly adjacent to the decorativeness line, and we’ve truly tried to support bully partnerships with the assemblage arsenic we look to execute a truly important semipermanent imaginativeness for the RTC and our region.”
Residents tin motion up for play email oregon substance updates connected the Maryland Parkway task astatine marylandparkway.com/stay-informed. Updates connected the Boulder Highway project, including substance notification sign-ups, are disposable astatine reimagineboulderhighway.com.
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