LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Holiday shopping season is around the corner and in an effort to prevent long delays and shortages, President Joe Biden announced the port of Los Angeles will begin 24/7 operations to help alleviate bottlenecks.
Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman says the expansion of hours at the Los Angeles ports will certainly help, but so much more needs to be done. She says as a nation we need to take action and improve our infrastructure or else we can continue to see a delay in the shipping of our goods.
“To get to the routes of the rest of the country it has to pass through I-15 [Interstate 15] and Southern Nevada,” Goodman said.
In Southern Nevada, when it comes to the shipping of goods, Goodman says we play a critical role. I-15 serves as a critical artery for distribution, but long lines of traffic have led to shortages and delays.
“Normally coming here from Los Angeles is about three and a half to four hours. Two weeks ago it was nine hours to return,” said Goodman.,
The stretch on the interstate from Barstow, California, to the Nevada stateline, has two lanes on each side but Goodman says to relieve the traffic the interstate needs at least three on each side.
“We don’t have the roadway and now we are going to have these trucks with all these goods that are unloaded,” Goodman explained.
Paul Enos, the president of the Nevada Trucking Association says when the infrastructure of our nation is not properly built for distribution, truck drivers’ jobs get harder.
“We don’t necessarily think about the entire network that we all rely on to get those groceries to our shelves, to get medicines to hospitals, to get raw materials to construction and manufacturers,” Enos said.
If we don’t take action on a federal level, Enos says these shortages and delays in Southern Nevada will lead to a rise in the cost of goods.
“Nevada has done a good job of addressing that problem, we need our colleagues in the Golden State to realize while I-15 is not a big deal for them, it is a big deal for the residents of Nevada and Utah,” Enos said.
Both Mayor Godman and Enos are working with State and Government leaders to strengthen our infrastructure and assist our economy.
