The Spaghetti Bowl is the major freeway interchange just west of downtown Las Vegas. I-15 bisects it in one direction, running from the northeast (Salt Lake City) to southwest (Los Angeles). US 95 bisects it from the other, running from the northwest (Reno) to the southeast (Phoenix).
Those are the basics. However, there are a few complications.
First, there’s US 93 to account for. This highway, which runs through Nevada from Jackpot to Hoover Dam, accompanies I-15 into Las Vegas from around 50 miles northeast, where the two roads merge; at the Spaghetti Bowl, US 93 changes directions and continues essentially south, merging with US 95 for 25 miles or so. Just on the other side of Railroad Pass in the southeast valley, US 95 peels off to the south and heads down toward Laughlin, southeast California, and western Arizona to Yuma, while US 93 continues southeast to Phoenix.
Meanwhile, the official designation of the US 93-95 freeway through Las Vegas is I-515, the 20.5-mile Interstate-standard part of the road from the Spaghetti Bowl through Henderson. This stretch of road was Interstate-ready when it was given its I-515 status in 1995. The designation has been slow to catch on, however, so it’s still generally referred to as US 95 by traffic reporters, especially since I-515 uses US 95’s mileposts (the exit numbers count down to the California border near Laughlin). Some people erroneously call it Interstate 95; I-95 runs along the east coast of the U.S.
Another wrinkle. Within the city, US 95/I-215 is known as the Las Vegas Expressway.
The name of the other major freeway in Las Vegas is the Las Vegas Beltway, a 53-mile road that loops around the valley. A few stretches of the Beltway meet Interstate standards and are currently called I-215, though the official name of the whole road is Clark County Route 215. The entire road will be completed to Interstate standards within the next 15 or so years; when it’s completed, it will be called I-125.
You can see good pictures of the Spaghetti Bowl below.
