This past Thanksgiving weekend brought plenty of things to do in the Virgin River Valley and Las Vegas, spending time with friends and family, a little gaming at the local casinos, and sporting events.  All of these fun activities were enjoyed by many throughout the area.  But along with all of the fun came the nightmare of traffic.

I-15 northbound was backed up from approximately Mile Marker 120 in Mesquite, Nevada to the bridge construction at Mile Marker 8 in Arizona, a distance of more than 10 miles.  There were reports on Facebook that stated it took some people as long as 2 hours to travel from Mesquite to Littlefield on I-15, because of the amount of traffic.  This led to people exiting the interstate in Mesquite to take the Old Highway 91 to Littlefield. They were met by the State Police at the northbound on ramp to I-15, where they weren’t allowed to get on the interstate; instead they were directed to continue on Highway 91 to St. George, Utah.  Traffic was backed up on Highway 91 for several miles because of all the vehicles trying to bypass the backup on the interstate.  Not allowing the extra vehicles on I-15 definitely made an improvement in the congestion at the merge point.

Although there was a ton of traffic on the interstate, everyone seemed to be respectful of letting other cars merge at the road construction.  There was one minor fender bender at the northbound off ramp to Littlefield, but officers were close by and were able to get the vehicles removed off the freeway in a few minutes.  In fact the removal was so quick that the traffic didn’t seem to slow at all.

Backups like these will continue during the weekends until after the New Year.  It happens every year and the bridge construction certainly does not help the problem.  Just pop in your favorite music, start singing and enjoy the ride.