Officials with Save Red Rock, the advocacy group working to protect the safety and sustainability of Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, have noticed what they consider a disturbing trend in recent months: commercial trucks weighing more than 26,000 pounds rolling along scenic byway Red Rock Road Route 159.
That puts cyclists and hikers on the road at risk, the group says. It also violates a Nevada law regarding traffic on designated scenic routes that’s been on the books since 2007.
The group said it received word of about two dozen sightings of trucks in the past month, including four instances alone Thursday.
“It’s been 18 years since that law went into effect, and a lot of things have changed since then,” said Erik Klausen, a member of the board of directors at Save Red Rock. “We started noticing probably in the last six to nine months, just more traffic than we used to see, and it was concerning given the amount of increased recreation traffic on 159 that there was additional truck traffic on top of it. We said, ‘Why, we need to figure out how big this problem is and what is the scope of it?’ ”
Save Red Rock is reaching out to law enforcement asking for increased patrols. It also will ask the Nevada Department of Transportation for more signage alerting truck drivers of the prohibition on heavy truck traffic.
They also want to speak with drivers at the nearby gypsum mine to remind them that State Route 159 “is not open as a bypass or a through route, it’s only for (commercial truck) drivers with a destination on the route,” Klausen said.
S.R. 159 is a 31-mile loop that runs through Red Rock Canyon, starting at Charleston Boulevard in the west valley and circling around to connect with State Route 160 in the southwest — which eventually turns into Blue Diamond Road. Truck drivers use S.R. 160 to reach Pahrump and other parts of central Nevada from Las Vegas.
About 9 miles of S.R. 159 through Red Rock Canyon was designated a scenic byway by the Nevada Department of Transportation in June 1995, and it’s one of 20 designated state scenic byways. The Department of Transportation in 2009 restricted trucks of more than 70 feet from the route.
U.S. Rep. Dina Titus, D.-Nev., partnered with Save Red Rock in 2007 to pass the commercial truck traffic prohibition when she was serving in the Nevada Senate. Titus was “given assurances by the Nevada Department of Transportation that this ban would be enforced,” she told the Sun this week.
“Now we are seeing a resurgence of heavy-duty truck traffic on State Route 159. This is unacceptable,” she said. “Red Rock is one of Nevada’s natural treasures and our residents and visitors should be able to visit it without fear of unsafe road conditions. I strongly urge the Nevada Department of Transportation and the highway patrol to enforce the law. One fatality is too many.”
The Department of Transportation in 2023 published a study on the usage and future planning of State Routes 159 and 160 in collaboration with Las Vegas, Clark County, Nye County, the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada, the Bureau of Land Management, Central Federal Lands Highway Division and the Nevada State Police.
Conducted by transportation engineering firm CA Group, the report studied potential improvement plans for S.R. 159, which “faced increased pressure from new development, increasing speeds and rising safety concerns.”
Between 2015 and 2019, 32 fatalities had occurred along the S.R. 159 and S.R. 160 corridor, with most crashes along S.R. 159 concentrated where the highway meets the 215 Beltway, according to the report.
Save Red Rock has been compiling data to look for patterns that could help in understanding the problem and finding solutions, he said. It also could help the group seek more legislation in future sessions.
“I would say that, given the change in demographics and visitation in the last 18 years, I wouldn’t rule out an update to that law because … laws get outdated,” Klausen said. “They have all the well intent in the world, then the world changes around them and they’re not as effective as they used to be, and so they need to be updated. That might be the case, but it’s early to say that.”
