LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — The Formula 1 Las Vegas Grand Prix is only six weeks away and construction crews are continuing to work on the circuit ahead of the race.
On Tuesday, race officials said final track paving is almost completed on Koval Lane between Rochelle and Westchester, which is the final major track area crews are working on. Terry Miller, from Miller Project Management, said crews are also continuing to put in lighting across the circuit.
According to Miller, starting on Oct. 10, crews will be looking at closing Harmon and Koval in order to work on the final approach to the grid at the pit building. On the week of Oct. 15, Miller said crews will start putting in the track barriers on Sands Avenue and begin transforming streets into a cold track.
"You'll be able to drive past the barriers that will be part of the race circuit," Miller said. "However, things change. For example, we adjusted our schedule so that on the week of Oct. 8, we aren't offending the traffic situation for the G2E conference that's coming in."
The week of Oct. 22, Miller said crews will begin installing the vehicular bridge on Flamingo. It will be a 10-day project. However, the intersection will only be closed for five days. You can see how traffic will be affected below.
On the week of Oct. 29, Miller said crews will start setting up advertising across the circuit, if an advertising agreement is approved. By the first week of November, Miller said they'll be done setting up the track on public roadways.
Race officials once again thanked the community and commissioners for their help on the project, which they said they know has caused public disruptions.
"This team is working with no fewer than 25 Clark County public agencies and departments. We're working with no fewer than 35 individual property owners around the circuit," Miller said. "There are a lot of people engaged in this and the heavy lift that everybody has been doing is certainly appreciated. This is a valley-wide project."
Commissioner Jim Gibson added that even without Formula 1 coming to town, the same roads would have been impacted in the future anyway.
"We still would have been breaking up Las Vegas Boulevard and doing work underground and repaving the boulevard," Gibson said. There are other streets over the next couple of years that are part of the course that would have been affected also but never everything like this has happened. It's been very difficult for the community and I think the benefit to us from all of that will be evident as we reveal some of the things you're working on. We're excited to get to a point where we can publish some of that."
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One thing race officials said they've been working on is making sure workers impacted leading up to the race know how to get to the Strip as crews continue working on the circuit.
"We heard from [commissioners] how important it is to community to our hospitality workers and our neighbors. We have sent messaging to LVMPD, the Nevada Resort Association, MGM, Caesars, LVCVA, RTC, NDOT, Wynn, Venetian, and the Las Vegas Emergency Incident Facebook group," said Michon Martin, president of R&R Partners. "We have been talking to Culinary because we're inviting their members to get all of this information in real-time. I want our hospitality workers to wake up every morning and know how they're going to be able to get to work."
You can also learn more about closures and track information on Formula 1's Las Vegas Grand Prix website or by signing up for the Formula 1 SMS text service to get weekly updates. You can opt-in by texting F1LV to 31996.
