Nevada State Route 163
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| State Route 163 |
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| Laughlin Highway | |||||||||||||
| Length: | 19.256 mi[1] (30.990 km) | ||||||||||||
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| Formed: | 1978 (SR 77 by 1942) | ||||||||||||
| West end: |  US 95 north of the California state line |
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| East end: |  SR 95 near Bullhead City |
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| Major cities: | Laughlin | ||||||||||||
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State Route 163 is a state highway in southern Clark County, Nevada. The route connects the town of Laughlin to the rest of the state via U.S. Route 95. The route is called the Laughlin Highway, and was previously known as State Route 77.
SR 163 and Arizona State Route 95 provide the next closest public Colorado River crossing to Hoover Dam. Due to the restriction of commercial vehicles over the dam since the September 11th attacks, SR 163 comprises part of the required detour for truck traffic traveling between the Las Vegas and Phoenix metropolitan areas.
[edit] Route description
State Route 163 begins as a four-lane divided highway at its junction with US 95 just north of the California state line. From there, the highway negotiates some fairly steep mountain grades as it heads loses elevation heading east toward Laughlin. Just outside of Laughlin, the divided highway comes together and intersects Casino Drive before crossing the Colorado River and entering Bullhead City, Arizona on AZ 95.
[edit] History
State Route 77 first appear on Nevada state maps in 1942 as an unimproved road. At that time, SR 77 had an eastern terminus near the Bulls Head Dam (later Davis Dam) site and a western terminus at former State Route 76 (now an unnumbered road), which connected to US 95 north of the current US 95/SR 163 junction.[2] By 1947, the west end of SR 76 was realigned and paved; along with a paved SR 77, this new pavement would eventually form the majority of SR 163.[3] As of 1973, the southern part of SR 76 was removed from the state highway system and SR 77 was extended to US 95 along the paved alignment of the former SR 76.[4]
In 1978, Nevada's highway department began a project to simplify and renumber the state highway system. SR 77 was reassigned to State Route 163 during this process.[5]
[edit] References
- ^ Nevada Department of Transportation. Nevada State Maintained Highways, Descriptions, Index and Maps, January 2008. Retrieved on 2008-06-08.
- ^ Department of Highways. Official Road Map of the State of Nevada [map]. (1942) Retrieved on 2008-06-08.
- ^ Department of Highways. Official Road Map of the State of Nevada [map]. (1947) Retrieved on 2008-06-08.
- ^ Nevada State Highway Department. Official Highway Map of Nevada [map]. (1973) Retrieved on 2008-06-08.
- ^ Nevada State Highway Department. Official Highway Map of Nevada [map]. (1978-79) Retrieved on 2008-06-08.
