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Shop at Jay’s Market at 190 East Flamingo Road at the Koval Lane intersection east of the Strip.
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By Alan Snel, LVSportsBiz.com Publisher-Writer
There’s more to the Formula One race road prep work than just installing fences, barriers and light mounts.
A water pipe leak below Flamingo Road was detected on the first day of Las Vegas Grand Prix’s three-day F1 race event about 11 months ago in November and the Las Vegas Valley Water District is wrapping up work to replace the old water pipe that sprung the leak, said Bronson Mack, the water district’s spokesperson.
The water district detected the leak on the same day that the Las Vegas Grand Prix held its first race practice that ended badly a mere eight minutes into the Thursday night practice when a Ferrari struck the concrete frame around a water valve cover.
Mack said the fact the water district detected the pipeline leak on the same day that the valve cover damaged a race car during practice was a coincidence.
The case of the water pipe leak is just one chapter of the short history of a much LVCVA-hyped road race in the Strip corridor that has triggered four lawsuits (and counting) from businesses alleging they lost millions of dollars because of the F1 race.
The water leak was also detected several months after Clark County and Formula One installed a controversial temporary bridge on Flamingo Road spanning Koval Lane because Koval is part of the 3.8-mile race course. Remarkably, Clark County commissioners handed over the 3.8 miles of public roads and right-of-ways to Liberty Media-owned Formula One for zero compensation.
The water leak work was necessary, but it did provide yet another layer of infrastructure work on top of the grand prix race preparations that are shorter in duration in 2024 than for the inaugural event in 2023. F1 has a 17-week work schedule to prepare for the race and dismantle the track gear that began in early September.
After the water leak was found, the water district began work in April to fix it. The leak was isolated between Las Vegas Boulevard and Koval Lane east of the Strip.
Las Vegas Paving had the job of paving Flamingo Road as part of the water pipe work and placed cones along the road that blocked access to Battista’s Hole in the Wall Italian restaurant and Stage Coach Casino on Linq Lane this week. Randy Markin, who runs the businesses, said the driveway was blocked from 10:30 PM Monday to 7:30 AM Tuesday.
The fact that the water leak happened after the F1 temporary bridge was installed on Flamingo Road raised the issue of whether the structure at the Flamingo-Koval intersection caused the old water pipe to spring a leak.
The water district’s Mack denied there was “causation” between the bridge installation and the water leak.
But Wade Bohn, owner of Jay’s Market at the northwest corner of Flamingo-Koval, theorized the installation of the temporary bridge on Flamingo spanning Koval caused an old, weak pipe to break.
Whatever caused the pipe break, the new water pipe has been installed and Flamingo Road has been paved.
Meanwhile, the F1 race preparation marches on daily.
This is the Strip in front of the Bellagio today.