ST. GEORGE, Utah — Recent crashes along Interstate 15 through the Virgin River Gorge have caused extensive delays for travelers between St. George and Las Vegas, with some drivers stuck for hours or forced to take lengthy detours.
A fatal crash about 50 miles north of Las Vegas on Sunday claimed the lives of two teens and injured five others, causing significant traffic backups.
"I don't like the way the roads are set up. I dread going to Vegas. It's not really fun anymore," said St. George resident Shalee Madsen.
St. George resident Katie Lorson said her husband's normally two-hour drive back from Las Vegas took hours longer on Sunday due to the crash. Lorson herself experienced similar delays four weeks earlier because of another accident.
In a separate incident, a truck overturned in the same area, spilling oil and closing northbound I-15 for more than 12 hours. St. George resident Shalee Madsen was among those caught in the resulting traffic jam.
"I had to miss a day of work the next day because I had to turn around and go back to Vegas because I was in line from 10 a.m. and had to turn back at 3 because it was going to take 12 hours or longer," said Madsen. "There needs to be an alternative route just in case something like this happens."
Currently, the only alternative route between Las Vegas and St. George requires drivers to take a highway further north in Nevada before heading back down — adding an extra two hours to the journey.
The 46-mile stretch of I-15 through Arizona and the Virgin River Gorge has undergone continuous construction and repairs over the past 10 years to fix bridges. While that $2.6 million project is now complete, traffic problems persist whenever accidents occur.
"At the time, it was one of the most expensive pieces of road to build, and it's still fairly expensive to maintain through there, but there is a road there. And that's how people get from St. George to Vegas," said Lee.
Kelsey McFarland with the Nevada Department of Transportation said work to widen I-15 in the area is nearly complete, but there are no plans to create alternative routes.
Myron Lee, the transportation planning director for the Five County Association of Governments who handles transportation planning for Washington County, doesn't anticipate any changes soon.
"We need to work with what we have. There's not a lot of money to build new stuff," said Lee.
