text: interstate 80 business ( west wendover , nevada – wendover , utah ) interstate 80 business ( bl - 80 ) is an unofficial business loop of interstate 80 ( i - 80 ) that is 2 . 26 miles ( 3 . 64 km ) long and serves as the main street for the us cities of west wendover , nevada , and wendover , utah , along a roadway named wendover boulevard . wendover boulevard was originally part of u.s. route 40 ( us 40 ) , which connected california to new jersey via nevada and utah . a portion of the nevada segment is concurrent with u.s. route 93 alternate ( us 93 alt . ) , and the entire portion in utah is coterminous with utah state route 58 ( sr - 58 ) . the nevada department of transportation ( nevada dot ) applied for the business loop designation in the early 1980s but the designation has never been approved ; nevertheless , signs are posted in both states . between july 1976 and 1993 , bl - 80 was concurrent with state route 224 ( sr 224 ) in nevada . route description starting at the easternmost nevada exit of i - 80 , bl - 80 heads south , concurrent with us 93 alt. until it intersects with , and turns east onto , wendover boulevard . just west of the intersection , the highway passes the west wendover city hall , which houses the west wendover municipal court and justice court . traveling east along wendover boulevard , bl - 80 passes by the casino , the west wendover visitors center and scobie park . us 93 alt. turns south towards ely , while bl - 80 continues east until it reaches the montego bay resort and wendover nugget casinos . the casinos are connected via a sky bridge that allows pedestrian access between the hotels without crossing the highway . a line painted on the street marks the nevada – utah border . at the border , bl - 80 becomes coterminous with utah state route 58 for the final stretch through wendover , utah . bl - 80 continues to the east past aria boulevard , which to the north connects to i - 80 , and to the south leads to the historic wendover air force base , where the 509th composite group was stationed while it prepared to conduct atomic bomb attacks against japan during 1944 and 1945 . the highway briefly parallels the shafter subdivision of the union pacific railroad 's central corridor , which was formerly part of the feather river route of the western pacific railroad . as the highway travels east towards a half trumpet interchange with i - 80 , the number of lanes drops from five to two . traffic from bl - 80 can access eastbound i - 80 or turn off onto frontage road ; however , to access westbound i - 80 , travelers must continue eastbound until the next exit and turn around . traffic into wendover can access bl - 80 from both directions of i - 80 , and from frontage road . the utah segment of bl - 80 is codified into utah law as utah code § 72 - 4 - 111 . every year , the utah department of transportation ( udot ) conducts a series of surveys on its highways to measure traffic volume . this is expressed in terms of average annual daily traffic ( aadt ) , which is a measure of average traffic volume for any day of the year . in 2009 , udot calculated that an average of 2 , 370 vehicles per day traveled on bl - 80 at the state line . this is a significant decrease from the traffic counts earlier in the decade , which measured 11 , 205 vehicles in 2006 , 10 , 345 in 2005 , and 13 , 840 in 2004 . twenty - one percent of this traffic consists of trucks . history a roadway , now named wendover boulevard , has existed since june 23 , 1925 , when the victory highway was completed through wendover . then governors george h. dern of utah and james g. of nevada , as well as the secretary of agriculture william m. jardine were present to open the highway . bill smith and herman eckstein opened a filling station at the present location of the wendover nugget casino at a cost of $ 500 early in 1926 ( equivalent to $ 33 thousand in 2015 ) . to welcome travelers to his station , he installed a light bulb at the top of a tall pole , which served as the only light in the desert . the earlier lincoln highway was re - routed to follow the victory highway through the region by an order of the lincoln highway association executive committee on october 18 , 1926 . wendover boulevard was numbered us 40 through what are now the cities of west wendover and wendover beginning in 1926 . us 40 was the major thoroughfare between san francisco , in the west , and atlantic city , new jersey , in the east . us 40 was routed along the wendover cut - off , now known as frontage road , which was retained as a service road after the completion of the i - 80 . the us 40 designation was removed by 1976 or 1977 , when i - 80 was completed through the area . the designation of roadway now numbered us 93 alt. has changed twice in the past . between 1932 and 1953 , it was designated us 50 , and between 1954 and either 1978 and 1979 , it was designated us 50 alt . two other roads have been numbered utah sr - 58 in the past . the first route designated sr - 58 was formed in 1945 between sr - 36 and clover , but was decommissioned in 1953 . the second road to use the designation was formed in 1965 between i - 15 in new harmony back to i - 15 via , but that road was decommissioned in 1969 . the current sr - 58 was codified into utah law in 1969 between the state line and the junction with frontage road , which was formerly us 40 . wendover boulevard between us 93 alt. and the state line was designated sr 224 between july 1 , 1976 , and april 28 , 1993 , when the highway was transferred to elko county . even though bl - 80 is signed in both nevada and utah , the route has never been officially designated a business loop by the american association of state highway and transportation officials ( aashto ) or by the utah state legislature . nevada dot applied for the designation , but in july 1982 the application was deferred by aashto until utah submitted a request for a business loop . no such request has ever been submitted . prior to 2007 , bl - 80 was the only connection to the city of wendover from utah . however , a new partial diamond interchange , which allows traffic from i - 80 to exit going westbound and for traffic to enter i - 80 eastbound , at aria boulevard was constructed . the aria boulevard interchange was first planned in 2005 , and was completed without using any federal funding . in 2007 , the city of west wendover had two historical markers installed along bl - 80 , one at the state line , and the other at the intersection of us 93 alt. to commemorate the victory highway and us 40 . major intersections