Caution for Rally 9 traffic on I15 Utah to Las Vegas

[twobjshelbys]

Just a heads up on construction for anyone coming to Vegas from the north...

1. The section of I15 through the Virgin River Canyon in Arizona is under construction for what amounts to about half of the fun part of the drive. Traffic is combined to a set of very narrow lanes on what would normally be the northbound lane in two places. Very narrow and some rocks and gravel on the sides gets thrown up by vehicles that get close to the edge and by big trucks. This one looks like it will last for a while since I think they are resurfacing bridges and when the finish the southbound bridges my guess is they will switch and redo the northbound bridges.

2. There are several places of I15 between Mesquite and Las Vegas where traffic gets combined onto the northbound lane. Again, lots of loose gravel and stuff waiting to be tossed into your paint or windshield.

Beware if driving from Utah to the Rally!!!

 

[twobjshelbys]

Just a heads up on construction for anyone coming to Vegas from the north...

1. The section of I15 through the Virgin River Canyon in Arizona is under construction for what amounts to about half of the fun part of the drive. Traffic is combined to a set of very narrow lanes on what would normally be the northbound lane in two places. Very narrow and some rocks and gravel on the sides gets thrown up by vehicles that get close to the edge and by big trucks. This one looks like it will last for a while since I think they are resurfacing bridges and when the finish the southbound bridges my guess is they will switch and redo the northbound bridges.

2. There are several places of I15 between Mesquite and Las Vegas where traffic gets combined onto the northbound lane. Again, lots of loose gravel and stuff waiting to be tossed into your paint or windshield.

Beware if driving from Utah to the Rally!!!

Also due to the gravel I would avoid I15 north of Vegas for pre- and post-rally drives...

 

[twobjshelbys]

I forgot to update this. On our last trip on the 4th of July the section through Arizona was down to one lane but only one area of active construction. It's quite possible this will be done by Rally time.

The portion of I15 from Mesquite to Vegas was also cleaning up nicely. The southbound lane was mostly repaved. There was still lane closures both directions but more on the northbound side.

This was a month ago now so things are probably quite different probably for the better.

 

[twobjshelbys]

Things got way more complicated in the past few hours for I15 between Utah/Arizona and Las Vegas. Heavy rains resulting in flooding near the Moapa area that has washed out portions of I15. It looks from the areal views that the southbound direction has one working lane but the northbound lane is cut to less than 1/2 lane. It's probably going to take a few days for temporary repairs. Pity because most of this area had just been repaved and was really nice.

We just made our last planned trip last Friday! Our stuff is on a moving van so that will now almost certainly be delayed.

 

[Luke Warmwater]

Driven up 15 many times to play golf in Mesquite wow.

[video=youtube;UscvetL9xc0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UscvetL9xc0[/video]

 

[GKW05GT]

Wow, that is some video.

 

[AJB]

Incredible..!! It always bothers me when I hear and see of these nice big rainfalls in California , Arizona, Nevada etc. and yet all the residents complain that they don't have enough water and that Lake Meade is drying up...
Maybe one of the residents can comment.
Watching this 'river of water' makes me wonder.. why do they not save and store it ??
As an example ..even at my farm in Pa . where we get copious quantities of rain, I have all of my roof rainwater fed into gutters and then an underground pipe system that feeds it into my big fish pond... where it is stored and used in the dry season.... any excess runs into two ( 2) wells with old fashioned hand pumps that is then used for cleaning cars, tractors and watering the lawn.
Comments welcome...
andy (ajb)

 

[SteveA]

My guess is most all that rain for hundreds of sq miles around wound up in the Colorado river and it's dam system. I've been vacationing on Mead and Powell when storms like that have hit and it raised the lakes less than a foot, and these storms are very, very infrequent. It's all about snow pack in Utah and Colorado. Lake Mead is down more that 130 ft. http://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/the-low-waters-of-lake-mead/

 

[twobjshelbys]

Incredible..!! It always bothers me when I hear and see of these nice big rainfalls in California , Arizona, Nevada etc. and yet all the residents complain that they don't have enough water and that Lake Meade is drying up...
Maybe one of the residents can comment.
Watching this 'river of water' makes me wonder.. why do they not save and store it ??
As an example ..even at my farm in Pa . where we get copious quantities of rain, I have all of my roof rainwater fed into gutters and then an underground pipe system that feeds it into my big fish pond... where it is stored and used in the dry season.... any excess runs into two ( 2) wells with old fashioned hand pumps that is then used for cleaning cars, tractors and watering the lawn.
Comments welcome...
andy (ajb)

It is saved - in Lakes Powell and Mead.

I don't know about Nevada but in Colorado every drop of water belongs to someone, so until a few years ago even a rain barrel under a downspout was considered illegal unless you actually had rights to that water (and a storage right (reservoir or rain barrell) is different than a use right (pulling water to irrigate crops from a ditch or stream)). A few years ago people got live tickets for pumping water out of the Big Thompson.

The problem with Nevada and these areas is that they are FLAT. Mead evaporates at a horrendous rate and it is deep.

Plus there hasn't been this much water in that area since 1981...

And yes, the flash flood alert for this event indicated that this area's water (Moapa) would be in Lake mead in about two hours after it was there...

The people in the van were OK - this footage appeared on the local news. But the woman got out of the car and it's a miracle she wasn't washed down stream. My friend in Lyons wasn't so lucky and was our only fatality.

They expect to have one lane open on I15 by this weekend on a temporary roadbed, but the repairs will take at least a month.

 

[AJB]

Steve and Tony --thanks for the input. My hope then is that the area receives many more heavy rainfalls like this and that it is properly channeled to the lakes.
In summary then, what I do to conserve water in Pennsylvania would be illegal in CO. and Nevada..

andy

 

[twobjshelbys]

Steve and Tony --thanks for the input. My hope then is that the area receives many more heavy rainfalls like this and that it is properly channeled to the lakes.
In summary then, what I do to conserve water in Pennsylvania would be illegal in CO. and Nevada..

andy

In Colorado, cisterns (unless the place has water rights and the cistern is part of it) are illegal. Individual homes may now store runoff some but I don't think it includes say a 10000 gallon tank buried in the back yard. As I said, the runoff from developed areas is expected to flow. Similarly, when a farmer irrigates using the ditches (not the huge sprinklers) water is taken out at the head end, and any that is not absorbed by the crop runs into another ditch to be forwarded on.

Rules change at the Mississippi river, and change big time at the Wyoming/Colorado/New Mexico borders.

I have a real estate license in CO (will transfer it to NV) and most of the continuing ed classes I took were on water law. I was chairman of our planning board for 10 years and water was a big deal there so it was a good way to learn more about it. One course was taught by a CO supreme court justice who heads up all of the water cases that come to the court. He told me I should consider getting a law degree and specializing in it. I found it interesting. Unfortunately, by that time I was past the age when my uncle when he was in his 50s and had a heart attack while studying for classes. I decided I didn't need the stress. (That was the second time, the first time was in the 80's when I was working with some attorneys on a patent/IP infringement case and they wanted me in a program for patent law. Unfortunately at the time it would have meant moving to Boston and we didn't want to go there then.)

I don't know what Nevada does, but water is just as rare so I imagine the rules are similar. I guess I'll find out when I do the work for the state portion of the RE license.

 

[JCSB]

We have a house in Santa Fe, NM and my property allows cisterns. I'm on about 5 acres of land and we are having the cistern installed to allow assistance to our irrigation system.

John

 

[twobjshelbys]

We have a house in Santa Fe, NM and my property allows cisterns. I'm on about 5 acres of land and we are having the cistern installed to allow assistance to our irrigation system.

John

In New Mexico do water (and mineral) rights stay with the property or are they separated? I think almost all places separate mineral rights. In Colorado (and parts of Utah, as they try to adopt a strategy similar to Colorado) water is separately traded from real estate.