5/9/2023 0 Comments Carmageddon 2 los angelesThey expect another closure next year to replace the other half. Transportation officials said a full shutdown is necessary to replace the 50-year-old Mulholland Bridge as part of a $1 billion project to widen the perpetually bottlenecked segment through the Sepulveda Pass.Īuthorities said a full closure was necessary to demolish one side the span, and they picked this weekend to minimize impact to traffic on a workday. On a typical July weekend, about a half-million vehicles use the section of the freeway, known locally as the 405, to get to major destinations such as the airport, beaches and interchanges to other major highways. "Be prepared, treat it like it's a disaster." "The best thing is to stay home if you can, don't drive if you don't have to," said Michael Miles, a California Department of Transportation official. Starting last month, they flashed freeway electronic signs warning drivers to "EXPECT BIG DELAYS." ![]() ![]() He planned to sleep in the ER throughout the weekend instead of commuting the 20 miles from his home in Torrance to the hospital.Īuthorities are hammering the same message to drivers. "You can't take a chance when you deal with patient safety and patient care," said Dr Wally Ghurabi, the emergency director of Santa Monica-UCLA Medical Centre. It has three helicopter companies on standby to transport patients and human organs in the event of emergency operations. The UCLA Health System placed advanced orders for medical supplies and food, even preparing 5,200 box lunches for staff, ahead of the shutdown. Four big hospitals near the freeway on the city's west side are setting up cots and putting thousands of doctors, nurses and medical personnel in hotels and dorm rooms so they don't show up late to their shifts. Eat & shop local," Tom Hanks tweeted this week.īeyond tongue-in-cheek apocalyptic warnings, city leaders stressed that real public safety concerns exist: Helipads have been cleared for air ambulances and 200 extra firefighters and paramedics will be on duty, some of them positioned along the shuttered freeway to protect fire-prone hillsides in the area. "This weekend, LA! Avoid Carmageddon, Gas-zilla, 405-enstein, Grid-lock-apalooza! STAY HOME. October in time for rush hour traffic.Celebrities are among those sounding the alarm, via Twitter messages urging residents to stay off the road starting at midnight Friday. The freeway is scheduled to reopen by 5 a.m. Motorists should instead use alternate regional freeway routes to completely bypass the area. Sepulveda Boulevard does not have the capacity to accommodate both local and diverted freeway traffic. "More motorists may now be tempted to rejoin local roads and freeways, which has the potential to create the very traffic congestion and multi-hour delays transportation and law enforcement officials have warned about," a Metro news release stated.Īs with the previous I-405 closure, Sepulveda Boulevard is intended as an alternate route for local resident access only. Officials have been posting flashing freeway signs for weeks warning people all over the state to stay away. ![]() ![]() County Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials say the work project is more complicated this time around and highway users are warned to stay off local freeways over the Sept. "The risk factors are exactly the same as they were last year, so nothing has changed in terms of the heartburn that traffic agency people are feeling right now," said Dave Sotero, a spokesman for the transportation authority. If thousands of people hadn't stayed home when the highway was closed last year, authorities say it could have caused a traffic backup so massive it could have spread to connecting freeways, gridlocking the entire city highway system. 29 and 30 freeway will again be shut down between the 10 and 101 freeways for 53 hours.Īlthough officials are hopeful that motorists will again heed warnings to avoid highway travel during the closure, some believe the lack of problems during the first Carmageddon may cause apathy among motorists. Now “Carmageddon II” is upon us as CalTrans plans to again close a 10-mile stretch of the busy I-405 at the Sepulveda Pass over the last weekend in September. Warnings of a potential traffic nightmare kept hundreds of thousands of motorists off the highway during the I-405 closure last year - dubbed “Carmageddon” - making it one of the lightest freeway traffic weekends ever. stretch of one of the busiest freeways next weekend is a rerun of last year's two-day closure of the same segment of Interstate 405, but some fear apathy may cause a real traffic nightmare this time around. California highway officials are hoping the closure of a 10-mi.
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