I was looking at the Travel Nevada website and there on the home page in big bold letters was this: "Las Vegas Strip National Scenic Byway." The rest of the description was about the Strip, with nothing about the Byway designation. Are there any signs on the Strip identifying it as a Scenic Byway? And does the designation acrrue any benefits?
The Las Vegas Strip was declared "America’s first nighttime scenic byway" on June 30, 1995, by the director of the Nevada Department of Transportation (with some encouragement from the Nevada Commission on Tourism, the Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority, and the Clark County Comprehensive Planning Commission).
Five years later, on June 15, 2000, it was designated an "All-American Road" and recognized as a nighttime scenic byway by the Federal Highway Administration.
The Strip Scenic Byway stretches from Sahara Avenue to Russell Road. To maintain the designation, signs along the four miles of the Strip must be well-maintained and new signs require a certain amount of neon and animation.
Also in 2000, Las Vegas city officials and boosters began a big project to line Las Vegas Boulevard between Sahara and Washington avenues north of the Strip Byway with 25 vintage neon signs from the Neon Museum’s boneyard. The first two signs, the old "H" and horseshoe from Binion’s and the gigantic silver slipper from the casino of the same name, were completed in April 2001 at a cost of $400,000. After that, one or two signs were installed, one per block per year, over the next decade or so.
The effort paid off in 2009, when that same stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard through downtown was also designated a National Scenic Byway. The primary qualifier was all the neon, but the stretch was also recognized for its cultural, historic, and nighttime scenic attractions.
As for benefits, that's hit or miss. A little funding is granted by Congress to the Federal Highway Administration’s campaigns for its Scenic Byway program. These are typically awarded competitively (often 30–40 grants per cycle), with an 80% federal/20% non-federal match. Eligible uses include safety improvements, interpretive facilities, corridor management plans, marketing, resource protection, and more.
The amount has shrunk and the cycle has grown over the years, from a reported high of $40 million per year in the early 2000s to $0 in 2012. Grants were reinstated in 2021 and this year, the funding was set at $10 million (as enacted in the Consolidated Appropriations Act 2026), available through Sept. 30, 2029.
Some money has been received locally over the years after the city/county applied for and secured grants to enhance the Boulevard, such as landscaped medians and partnerships with the Neon Museum for interpretive and preservation projects. But our perusal of the Las Vegas Boulevard Scenic Byway Corridor Management Plan didn't turn up any dollar figures.
