U.S. Route 95 Alternate was an alternate route

Alternate route

An official alternate route is a special route in the United States that provides an alternate alignment for a highway. They are loop roads and found in many road systems in the United States including the U.S. Route system and various state route systems...

 of U.S. Route 95

U.S. Route 95 in Nevada

In the U.S. state of Nevada, U.S. Route 95 is a major U.S. highway traversing the state from north to south directly through Las Vegas and providing connections to both Carson City and Reno...

 in Las Vegas

Las Vegas, Nevada

Las Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous...

, Nevada

Nevada

Nevada is a state in the western, mountain west, and southwestern regions of the United States. With an area of and a population of about 2.7 million, it is the 7th-largest and 35th-most populous state. Over two-thirds of Nevada's people live in the Las Vegas metropolitan area, which contains its...

 that provided a bypass of the downtown area. The route was also designated as State Route 5C (SR 5C), a branch of State Route 5.

Route description

US 95A and SR 5C began at the intersection of Charleston Boulevard and Fremont Street

Fremont Street

Fremont Street is a street in Las Vegas, Nevada, and is the second most famous street in the Las Vegas metropolitan area after the Las Vegas Strip...

 (then US 93

U.S. Route 93 in Nevada

In the U.S. state of Nevada, U.S. Route 93 is a major U.S. highway traversing the eastern edge of the state. The highway connects the Las Vegas area to the Great Basin National Park, and provides further connections to Ely and Wells...

, US 95, US 466 and SR 5; now SR 582) in Las Vegas. From there, the highway proceeded along Charleston Boulevard, crossing US 91 and US 466, to a junction approximately 2.87 miles (4.6 km) to the west. At this point, Charleston Boulevard continued west along then-SR 85 while Alternate US 95 curved northward to follow Rancho Road (now Rancho Drive) to a terminus at Bonanza Road (then US 95 and SR 5; now SR 579).

History

It is unclear when State Route 5C and Alternate US 95 were first designated. A 1952 map of downtown Las Vegas (depicting road layouts as of late-1950) shows the highway alignment with the state route number and without the US highway designation. Another map, produced by a Las Vegas realty company in 1955, depicts Alternate US 95 on this alignment, but no state highways. In the Las Vegas area inset of Nevada's official 1953 state map (the first version of the map to have city insets), US 95A and SR 5C are shown prominently, but without any highway labels. State highway maps would frequently display the route as a major thoroughfare up through the 1987–88 version. With the 1976 renumbering of Nevada's state routes and US 95 freeway construction throughout the 1970s and 1980s, the State Route 5C and Alternate US 95 designations were likely eliminated prior to this time.