If you travel around the strip, you've surely become familiar with Flamingo Rd. And maybe you know that it is undergoing heavy construction for the next 6 months while they install underground utilities. You may be familiar with Tropicana Avenue and penciled that in as an alternate. WAIT!

Construction has begun on a project that will bring Tropicana to a crawl between I-15 and Paradise. This 6 month project is so that they lay some underground utilities as part of the new terminal construction at McCarran.

If the construction projects sound alike, good for you. The Flamingo project is spearheaded by Harrah's, who at the time of the project inception, gets whatever they wanted. The Tropicana project is spearheaded by the Mormon Mafia at the airport and is part of a $2.4 billion project that is getting close to completion. I think both sides are little to proud to put the plans before county and work out the timing issue.

It is what it is and if you want to avoid construction, head on up to Spring Mountain, DI arterial, Convention Center, etc. Or maybe go south to I 215 and take the Boulevard. This will affect your ground transportation whether you are on foot, car, cab, shuttle, or bus.

Did I mention that I-15 between 215 and downtown is still under construction?

Thanks for the update Joe. Staying at the IP I would go out the back, down Winnick to Koval and used that as my route to go north as far as Sands and south past Tropicana to East Reno, Giles and Mandalay Bay Road to the strip when going south. It avoided the strip and the Flamingo, Tropicana intersections altogether from Mandalay Bay to Wynn. It is a great way to get from the rental center to the parking garages for any hotels on the east side.

That is excellent planning. If you have a room with a view of the Flamingo/Koval intersection, it MIGHT be quicker at times to not go south on Koval. The long way of Koval to Sands to Paradise, and then south MIGHT be an ace in the hole during very heavy backups.

Last night, I was on the Vegas Mob Tour and at about 8:30pm we came up Flamingo from Eastern. Traffic came to a halt before we got to Koval and it took about 25 minutes to get to the back Flamingo entrance where the valet and parking garage are.

After the tour, I needed to go south. Trop was not much better and I took Reno around behind Hooters and the Tropicana.

Joe - thanks for this info.

Here's MY question:

I'm staying at NYNY in April. I can access the parking garage either from Tropicana or LV Blvd. Should I use the LV Blvd. entrance and avoid Tropicana altogether?

Whatever advice you can provide would be appreciated!

I think the biggest burdens will be on Tropicana Ave. From what I can tell, MGM and Hooters will suffer the most.

The new Terminal 3 will bring the electrical requirements of the airport above the capacity of the current substations servicing it. The airport has been directed to tap power from a substation behind NYNY.

The plan is to bury the lines down the center median of Tropicana. The plans also call for a minimum of two lanes of travel in each direction in addition to an emergency access. Trop is a very busy street and taking a lane away for construction is a burden.

If you are coming to NYNY from Maryland Pkwy, Paradise, or points east, avoid Tropicana. Plan a route to the strip such as Paradise to Harmon to the strip. If you are coming to NYNY from Mandalay Bay, turn left on Trop for the Trop entrance. If you are coming from the west, such as the Orleans, take the Trop entrance. If you are coming from the west such as Gold Coast, Hash House A GO GO, or Gold Coast, come down the strip. If you are coming from the north strip, you'll be in the right lane anyway, so you might as well use the strip entrance. By the time you get to the strip entrance, you'll know if that lane is backed up, and if it's moving, you could go on around to the Trop entrance.

As you know, if it's Friday or Saturday prime time, short cuts don't do a lot of good. Sometimes you gotta sit back and enjoy the scenery.

I honestly don't know the current status of Frank Sinatra Dr behind the Bellagio and NYNY. If that is an option, you might want to keep it in mind.

If I notice any changes to this advice, I'll let ya know.

There are a lot of street construction projects. Tropicana and Flamingo projects are considered utility projects rather than transportation projects. I got to thinking about some of the projects that affect the average tourist.

The ones I go out of my way to avoid are...
Westbound Flamingo between Paradise and the strip after dark.
Eastbound and westbound Tropicana between Paradise and the strip except at very weak travel times.
I-15, especially north of downtown.
Riviera Blvd between Paradise and the strip has been a mess since the Fountainbleu project started. Use Convention Center instead. Westbound towards the strip is usually worse than the eastbound traffic towards Paradise.

But there's many more projects that can slow down the tourist. The following might slow you down a little. They are small potatoes though.

Harmon is the street between the Harley Davidson Cafe and Planet Hollywood. It is torn up between City Center and the Hard Rock. Even when it's down to just one lane of travel, it flows relatively well.

Paradise Rd between the Hilton and Desert Inn. Most of the work seems to be in the median area. I've seen it come to a grinding halt behind the Riviera as well as the DI intersection.

DI, between Paradise and Swenson is torn up on the westbound lanes. It sometimes comes down to one lane, especially at night when it merges with the Paradise Road construction.

Las Vegas Blvd, southbound in front of City Center. This is an ongoing mess without a bright future. They usually keep three lanes going south, although they often change the route that these 3 lanes take. Just be careful and stay in your lane.

I'm STILL trying to figure out Frank Sinatra Drive. When I transferred from Mandalay Bay to Encore on my latest trip, my cab driver took that route most of the way. But at one point, he jigged and jagged and suddenly we were at Encore.

I wish there was a good map out there so I could figure it all out.

google it

Google maps or Google Earth is an excellent resource for general routing. It is outdated for current routes around construction.

Mike, I've driven by NYNY a few times lately. If you are on Trop coming from the freeway, the left turn into the property is fine. Just after that, construction squeezes down blocking the left turn lanes onto LV Blvd. Crossing the Blvd, it opens back up. The new single left turn lane onto the Blvd takes up a lane of through traffic and backs up into the next through traffic lane...even on a good day.

If you are on Trop coming from the airport, the construction isn't consistent. Construction along the median affects the left turn lanes onto Koval, Hooters, and Island Way into the back Tropicana parking lot.

I've noticed pedestrians and buses make getting into the Blvd entrance of NYNY a traffic issue.

Flamingo construction is still Sunday through Thursday, nights only, and there's only left over cones and equipment in the way the rest of the time.

Latest update

Trop isn't too bad. Most of the bad part is eastbound from I-15 to the boulevard.

Flamingo is like a mine field between Koval and the boulevard. Most of the heavy work is near Audrie which is the turn in to the Flamingo back entrance. There has been a lot of digging on Flamingo and after construction is over for the night, there are metal plates over the holes and cones along the median and sidewalks.

I don't see a lot of things to actually avoid on these streets. Just be aware of where you are and where you are going, slow down, and be careful.

One road to avoid is on the west side of the freeway. Don't even think of using Valley View for a north/south route. It's dug up pretty bad from the Rio all the way up north around Charleston.

Between us, Jeff & I got in and out of Bally's, Bill's, Harrah's and the Flamingo with no problem last week --- as long as we stayed on the east side of the Strip. The only real PITA for me was going east from the Gold Coast to Bally's about noon.