MONORAIL, MALL, WYNN CREATE VEGAS BUZZ.

Byline: Eric Noland Travel Editor

Las Vegas should probably take a breath. But this, after all, is the city that moderation forgot. On and on it pants in a redevelopment boom that shows no signs of abating.

In recent months, Mandalay Bay added a new tower filled exclusively with suites and the Fashion Show Mall increased its square footage to nearly 2 million. Sometime this month, the ribbon will be cut on a monorail that will whisk passengers from the MGM Grand to the Sahara in under 14 minutes. The Fremont Street Experience is adding light bulbs. And on the site of the old Desert Inn, Steve Wynn, the Bellagio's visionary, is building a new hotel that will include a 117-foot mountain and the requisite torrent of incongruous water features.

Tourism officials tally it all up and marvel at the numbers: Capital investment in excess of $5 billion is either under way or newly completed. With no end in sight.

``We've been asked for years, 'Are you built out?' '' said Rob Powers of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. ``But occupancy levels hold steady with the added hotel rooms. I think the key for us overall, every new project helps redefine the destination; it brings in new people or repeat visitors who want to see it.''

Does Las Vegas have the infrastructure to handle all of the explosive growth? It's a debatable point, and an incident in January trained a glaring light on the issue.

After one of the city's most important trade shows, that of the Consumer Electronics Association, McCarran International Airport was literally swamped. An estimated 110,000 people descended on the airport in a single day, most over a four-hour period at midday. The security checkpoints were overwhelmed, and some travelers suffered through delays of up to five hours - missing flights in the bargain.

But the construction races on. Prospective visitors should take note: In planning a visit, it might be wise to pick your spots.

Some of the major projects in the works:

Transit for masses

At least this undertaking directly addresses Las Vegas' overcrowded roadways. Anyone who has ever crawled up the Strip in a taxicab will rejoice in the impending opening of the $627 million Las Vegas Monorail, scheduled for later this month.

The line used to offer a laughable, one-block run from the MGM Grand to Bally's along the east side of the Strip, but now will continue on to Harrah's, jog right to Paradise Road and the Las Vegas Convention Center, continue north past the Las Vegas Hilton, and rejoin the Strip at the Sahara.

A second phase will continue on to downtown. Alas, a southerly connection to the airport will have to wait, probably until 2012 at the earliest.

The cars that used to run between the MGM Grand and Bally's were working museum pieces - they were part of the debut of Disney World in Florida. But they've been replaced with smart, new cars from Canadian-based Bombardier Transit Corp.

Nine four-car trains will zip along at speeds up to 50 mph, stopping at seven stations along a four-mile run. Introductory fares will be $3 per ride ($10 for a daily pass, $25 for a three-day pass), and spokesman Todd Walker boldly promised that the average wait for a train during peak hours will be about two minutes.

``To move the visitor onto this and get them off the streets ... this is going to redefine the Las Vegas experience,'' Walker said. ``We're going to enhance it, no question.''

The monorail run is complete and has been undergoing tests for weeks, with final construction concentrated on the stations, notably at the Convention Center.

Shop talk

You now have greater prospects for swiping the magnetic strip right off your credit card at the Fashion Show Mall, which is finishing an expansion that doubled its size, to 1.9 million square feet.

The massive retail complex, at the northwest corner of Las Vegas Boulevard South and Spring Mountain Road, expanded its Neiman-Marcus, Macy's and Robinsons-May department stores; added the first Nordstrom in Nevada, along with stores for Saks Fifth Avenue, Dillard's and Bloomingdale's Home; and introduced a sprawling new Food Court.

But a celebration of outdoor space - a revolutionary concept in this city - is the mall's most welcome new feature. A 480-foot-long steel structure called the Cloud now shades a 72,000-square-foot open-air plaza by day and serves as an image-projection screen at night. Tired of that same movie-set blue sky with puffy white clouds that you find at the Forum Shops, Desert Passage and the Grand Canal Shoppes? You get the real deal here.

A retractable stage and runway will enable visitors to watch live fashion shows six times a day.

``With the Cloud and the Plaza, we're trying to be like New York's Times Square,'' said spokeswoman Susie Black. ``It's not there yet. Nobody's selling knockoff Louis Vuittons, though.''

Black said the project is ``about 95 percent done,'' with some restaurants to be added by the fall.

Wynn-Wynn situation

The latest indulgence of Bellagio creator Steve Wynn isn't scheduled to open until April of next year, but it's already creating considerable buzz on the Strip.

The resort-casino, to be called Wynn Las Vegas, will occupy the site where the Desert Inn once stood - and, more important, will incorporate the Desert Inn's adjacent golf course into its layout.

Wynn plans to pour $2.5 billion into this project - a new record for this city of excess. It will be the first major resort to open on the Strip since the Aladdin in 2000.

You might wonder, though, if they had to divert the Colorado River to make it happen. The resort will gush forth with four lagoons and numerous waterfalls, and many of the water features are incorporated into the design of the golf course.

Also, 2.5 million gallons of water will stream beneath the audience in a domed, in-the-round theater that has a water stage.

Insiders are referring to the lavish new resort as ``Bellagio times 10,'' according to Las Vegas Review-Journal columnist Norm Clarke.

Eric Noland, [phone]

eric.noland(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

4 photos, map

Photo:

(1 -- color) Monorail trains will glide over the top of Las Vegas' legendary vehicle gridlock when the mass transit system opens later this month.

(2 -- 4) At the recently opened Mandalay Bay tower, above left, every room is a suite; casino and resort developer Steve Wynn's new venture, Wynn Las Vegas, left, is scheduled to open in April 2005; and the city's expanded monorail, above, seeks to ease street traffic.

Gene Blevins/Special to Great Escapes

Map:

Las Vegas MONORAIL

Gregg Miller/Staff Artist