It’s one of the deadliest stretches of highway in Nevada.
An 11 mile stretch of highway between Las Vegas and Pahrump has seen 280 crashes over a five year period, according to data collected by the Nevada Department of Transportation.
That’s almost double the accident rate for other rural roads the NDOT maintains.
Tony Illia is the spokesperson for the Nevada Department of Transporation's District 1, which includes all of Southern Nevada. He said part of the problem is the amount of traffic on the road.
Illia said the population boom of the past few decades has meant more people are using the road.
"As a result, SR160 has increased use dramatically. It had gone from a rural little highway to now a major thoroughfare linking Pahrump and Las Vegas," he said.
Besides the increase in traffic, the road is dangerous because drivers get impatient.
"They get impatient behind a slower moving vehicle and will swerve out into oncoming traffic to try to pass," Illia said.
The project will widen the road from mile marker 11 to Mile Marker 16, changing it from a two-lane road to a four-lane divided highway.
NDOT hopes to break ground by the end of this year, with the project slated to be finished by early 2017.
Tony Illia, public information officer, Nevada Department of Transportation