Boy is the San Diego highway grid going to be messed up tonight. Hope there are no injuries!
Buddy of mine is teaching a University of Phoenix class in San Diego right now. Just sent a text message alert about this to his mobile phone.
No kidding...for those that aren't locals and haven't seen the overhead views of the traffic situation tonight PRIOR to this, it'll be hard to imagine what a HUGE MESS this is going to cause to an already big traffic mess tonight :-( The races really screwed up 5...so that means anyone going north/south is really going to be in the midst of a mess.
I remember the last time we had a huge incident in almost the exact same spot...maybe 14-18 months ago and a guy was basically threatening suicide and they closed the road down there again. It was a bit earlier in the day, but it was also a Wed and I remember the video of the folks stuck all the way north far beyond Temecula, as 74/Ortega Highway is really the only way across depending on where it's really closed (meaning if it rules out 76 as a semi-alternate)...and that's not much of an alternate...
Hopefully everyone stays safe...and thank goodness it's not a holiday or weekend getaway day when the traffic going through that area would have been even worse.
The closure for northbound traffic is now being moved to Highway 78 and the 15. That's a logical point, but it's not a choke point because there's too many routes around it. It's going to take dozens of personnel to shut down all those alternate routes.
Until the reopening, everybody going north is going to end up on the 5. Charming. They, and the racetrack traffic should make a lovely mix.