Posted on 07/15/2011 6:17:29 PM PDT by Nachum
Los Angeles (CNN) -- The closure of a mountain highway pass in the heart of the nation's second-largest city -- an event anticipated to be so calamitous to car-loving Southern California that it's been dubbed "Carmaggedon" -- is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. Pacific on Friday.
That's when crews will begin closing ramps on Interstate 405 where it passes over the Santa Monica Mountains, California Department of Transportation officials said.
At 10 p.m. Pacific, crews will begin closing lanes, and by midnight, the 405 will be eerily vacant -- a "carpocalypse," some say -- for the next 53 hours.
Rendered desolate will be a 10-mile stretch of all five northbound lanes and a four-mile stretch of all five southbound lanes, officials said.
The 405 is one of the busiest freeways in the country, carrying about 500,000 cars a day through the Sepulveda Pass, a critical artery connecting Southern Californians to destinations up the coast. The 405 achieved notoriety on national television as the corridor that former NFL player O.J. Simpson used as he was being slowly chased by police in 1994.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Bleh
Video game was much cooler.
Saw a story of how Jet Blue is offering $4 tickets to commuters to “jump” over the closed roadway. That’s capitalism working well for you.
And Gov Moonbeam hasn't made this a toll way yet? Amazing.
Who is the Contractor?
Kiewit Infrastructure. It they are late, they will be fined up to $12,000 for every 10 minutes ($6k for northbound, $6k for southbound).
OMG! This is truly the END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT!!!
Seriously, folks. L.A. is a big place with a whole lotta streets. Figure it out.
They'd take until 2030 to finish it.
You must have spent a little time in North Texas. Don't even ask me what my toll road bills are like. It's one of the few things I don't like about this state.
Word. I think they're still working on projects that were started before the 94 quake.
Now THAT’S talking! My personal best is $2500/hour.
So, why are they closing it?
At 5 pm I loved Carmageddon. The 405 north toward the closure, at that rush hour, was EMPTY! I had so much fun driving it when the opposite direction was stopped as usual. Fun!
That's what countless residents did during the 1984 L.A. Olympics. Nearly everyone predicted massive traffic, but those two weeks turned out to be the most traffic-free I've ever seen (in L.A.). It was the last time it was a pleasure to drive there.
The $1.2 billion construction project calls for replacing a portion of a bridge at Mulholland Drive, a mountain summit road that is featured in many Hollywood films, authorities said. A year from now, crews will have to shut down the 405 again to replace a final portion of the Mulholland Drive bridge, officials said.
The project also calls for adding a car-pool lane in each direction, creating "the largest HOV system in the world" at 48.6 miles in length between the San Fernando Valley and Orange County, said Mike Miles, the California Department of Transportation's director for Los Angeles and Ventura Counties.
An endangered horsefly once flew over it...
And the homeless got tuxes/dress clothes in 1984.
Not true!
Remember “A day without a Mexican”?
OMG! It was like New Years day, the traffic congestion was nil.
Ah yes, I did forget. But I was out of town at the time.
Had the exact opposite effect as the Mexis intended. ...which is why it’ll never happen again.
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