Tropicana interchange completion delivers faster routes to Las Vegas Strip, stadiums
By Kyle Chouinard (contact)
Wednesday, Sept. 24, 2025 | 2 a.m.
I-15 and Tropicana Interstate Project Ribbon Cutting
Editor's note: Este artículo está traducido al español.
After three years of lane closures, detours and notorious “Dropicana” headaches, Las Vegas drivers can finally exhale. State and federal officials declared the $382 million rebuild of the I-15 Tropicana interchange officially finished Tuesday morning, cutting a ribbon where the work had snarled traffic since 2022.
Construction on the project got underway in late May 2022, while major demolition and reconstruction activities picked up momentum in early 2023. Throughout, the area has endured traffic restrictions and significant road closures.
Tracy Larkin Thomason, director of the Nevada Department of Transportation, noted that “Dropicana,” the unique name for the project, involved work that included construction crews “carefully” demolishing, or “dropping” the old Tropicana Avenue bridge “while keeping I-15 moving in between.”
Those construction crews “demolished, cleared, restriped and had both the freeway and Tropicana Avenue back open before the Monday morning rush. There was a lot of weekend work,” Thomason said. “Pulling that off twice shows the incredible precision and commitment of this team.”
U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., speaking to the packed crowd on the top level of TownePlace Suites’ garage, highlighted the Biden-era Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding the project received.
On top of the $45 million from the legislation covering Nevada bridges, the U.S. Department of Transportation awarded NDOT a $50 million grant for the I-15 Tropicana project in 2020.
“What we see here is crucial to continue,” Cortez Masto said. “We are the gold standard for the country, and our doors, our roads, are always open to tourism and travel here in the great State of Nevada.”
While overall visitation to the city has slowed by 7.3% over the first half of the year, Las Vegas also has to manage Clark County’s growing population. Just from 2010 to 2020, the population jumped by over 300,000 people to 2.27 million, according to Census Bureau data.
With that, Ayesha Molino, chief operating officer at MGM Resorts International, said the completed project makes travel “so much easier” for the company’s employees. Behind her sat the bulk of MGM’s Vegas properties, from Mandalay Bay in the south to the Bellagio toward the center of the Strip.
Gov. Joe Lombardo said that during the process, however, MGM wasn’t “obstructive,” but “instructive.”
“When the Super Bowl was taking place or F1 was taking place, there was a request to shut down construction,” said Lombardo. “But with cooperation from MGM and those conversations, we were able to continue the project.”
“Could you imagine the cost to the state if the project was shut down for any period of time?” the Republican governor remarked.
Molino, after thanking Lombardo, said that people associate public-private partnerships with a contentious relationship instead of something more collaborative. Speaking as a representative of one of the state’s major employers, she said that is “not the case” in Nevada.
Tropicana also serves as a “gateway” to Las Vegas’ growing sports industry, said Clark County Commissioner Justin Jones, who also serves as the chair of the Regional Transportation Commission.
The Raiders play in Allegiant Stadium across I-15 from Mandalay Bay, the Golden Knights are at T-Mobile Arena just north of Tropicana and the Aces are based in Michelob Ultra Arena at Mandalay Bay. The Athletics, currently in Sacramento, Calif., after leaving Oakland, are in the process of building a new stadium where the Tropicana hotel previously stood just east of the I-15.
“This project is about far more than just moving cars,” Jones said. “It’s about strengthening our economy, keeping our community connected (and) ensuring residents and visitors alike can access the businesses, entertainment and world-class events that make Las Vegas such an incredible city.”