Your weekend cruise down Las Vegas Boulevard is about to turn into a long-distance spectator sport. The Rock 'n' Roll Running Series is rolling into town and will turn the Strip and parts of downtown into a racecourse, with a Saturday night 5K followed by a Sunday 10K and half-marathon. Expect staged closures, rolling street blocks and a lot of waiting at barricades as sections of the Strip reopen bit by bit once runners pass instead of flipping back on all at once.
The race schedule has the 5K starting at 5 p.m. Saturday from Fourth Street and Bridger Avenue, and the half-marathon and 10K starting at 4:30 p.m. Sunday on Las Vegas Boulevard near Tropicana, according to the Rock 'n' Roll Running Series. The event's traffic page also offers interactive road-closure maps and a road-reopening grid that residents, hotels and drivers can use to time their trips around the chaos.
Strip and Downtown Closures to Expect
The Las Vegas Review-Journal's traffic rundown breaks the closures into block-by-block detail. Large stretches of the Strip will be shut at different times Sunday. For example, the boulevard between Flamingo and Spring Mountain is slated for a long afternoon-to-evening closure, while southbound lanes from Tropicana toward Sunset are scheduled to be closed for several hours, as reported by the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Downtown, closures tied to the Saturday 5K will start earlier in the day and will include portions of Fremont Street plus Bridger and Carson avenues.
Transit Detours and the Deuce
The Regional Transportation Commission is blunt about it: dozens of bus routes will be detoured throughout the weekend, and riders are urged to pad their schedules. Impacted lines include routes 104, 108, 109, 113, 119, 201, 202, 203, 206, 207, 208 and 215, as well as the Boulder Highway Express, Centennial Express and Sahara Express. The Deuce will not operate on Las Vegas Boulevard between downtown and the South Strip Transit Terminal, according to the RTC.
I-15 Off-Ramps and Alternate Routes
Local reporting that cites Nevada Department of Transportation plans lists multiple I-15 off-ramps in the resort corridor that will be closed for several hours Sunday, including ramps to Spring Mountain, Sahara, Charleston and Tropicana. Some of those closures will run into the late evening. To get across the resort corridor without losing your mind, NDOT recommends using I-515 (U.S. 95) to the north or I-215 to the south, as KTNV reports.
Plan Ahead
If you have to drive, give yourself extra time, lean on alternate north-south routes and brace for slower trips while closures are active. Race organizers and transit officials are urging people to check the race traffic-impact page and the RTC alerts and detours page for the latest maps and stop changes before heading out, per RunRocknRoll and the RTC.
