For all those who missed it the first time around, here's the original answer to this question, which we tackled back in June 2012.
According to a study conducted back in 2010, the I-15 linking Las Vegas to Los Angeles was deemed the deadliest stretch of highway in America, with close to 600 fatalities having occurred over the past decade and a half among the 8 million people who drive back and forth every year from southern Nevada to southern California.
That report was hardly news to the Nevada Department of Transportation, which the previous year had already approved an ambitious construction project aimed at easing congestion and improving access and safety on the I-15 south corridor. The estimated $250+ million I-15 South Design-Build project targeted the stretch between Blue Diamond Road and Tropicana Avenue and called for a widening of the I-15 to four lanes in each direction, improvements to off-ramps and overpass bridges, a new Sunset Road bridge, and the addition of one-way collector-distributor roadways to improve traffic flow on interchanges. Three percent of the budget, which is largely being funded by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority using room taxes, was dedicated to landscaping, including the addition of 40 animal statues made from weathered steel that were unveiled earlier this year.
While distracted driving has been cited as one of the main causes of the regular crashes on this stretch of road, studies have proven that landscaping along freeways actually reduces accidents, with public art and attractive plants credited with having a calming effect on motorists that causes them to slow down. There's also anecdotal evidence that such improvement schemes even deter graffiti and other vandalism. Hence the I-15's new metallic menagerie, which comprises 9- to 11-feet tall native creatures, including horses, burros, big horn sheep, and coyotes, set in a landscape peppered with (actual) indigenous plants such as yuccas, creosote brush, and white bursage. The sculptures, which weigh about a ton each and take approximately 120 hours to create, are coated with a special aging treatment for that timeless look (it also makes it easy to brush off paint, should any unwelcome graffiti appear). They're bolted to concrete pads, too, so there should be no danger of your vehicle being hit by a giant sheep during a flash flood.
You can view a gallery of the sculptures and the creative process behind them at the Las Vegas Sun.
