Desert Inn Road

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Desert Inn Road, also known as Wilbur Clark D.I. Road, is a major east–west road in the Las Vegas area named after the Desert Inn hotel. Most of the route is a normal street serving homes, shops, and industry, but a 2.5-mile section on the Las Vegas Strip becomes an expressway with grade separations and partial interchanges. This expressway acts as a border between Paradise and Winchester. Officially it’s called the Desert Inn Road Super Arterial, though signs refer to it as Wilbur Clark D.I. Road. Construction finished in 1996 at a cost of about $84 million. The expressway helps bypass The Strip by passing over I-15 and under Las Vegas Boulevard.

Desert Inn Road is not connected to the freeways it crosses; it has bridges over CC-215 and I-15 and is under I-11/US 93/US 95. It also runs under Las Vegas Boulevard, making it the only major east–west surface street on the Strip that does not cross Las Vegas Boulevard. The road starts in Summerlin South at Red Rock Ranch Road, crosses CC-215 with no direct access, then goes into Las Vegas, crossing Rainbow Boulevard (NV 595) and Jones Boulevard (NV 596) before Valley View Boulevard, where the Desert Inn Expressway begins.

The expressway portion starts with a few driveways, then a partial interchange at Rancho Drive (eastbound exit, westbound entrance). A RIRO connects to Highland Drive, Western Avenue, and Spring Mountain Road, and the expressway crosses Highland Drive, the Union Pacific Railroad, and Sammy Davis Jr. Drive. It then lowers from a viaduct to pass through a tunnel under Las Vegas Boulevard, where an eastbound ramp from Wynn Boulevard connects. The expressway then meets Paradise Road, goes under the Las Vegas Monorail and the Las Vegas Convention Center, and ends at University Center Drive and Joe W. Brown Drive, where Desert Inn Road continues east as a standard arterial road.

Desert Inn Road later passes under I-11/US 93/US 95 and intersects Boulder Highway (NV 582), after which it continues north as Lamb Boulevard for a short stretch. The road restarts off Lamb Boulevard and continues east, crossing Nellis Boulevard (NV 612). Near its eastern end, a bridge over the Las Vegas Wash opened in 2022, connecting two previously dead-end segments. The entire route is in Clark County.