LA mayor: Freeway to reopen starting at 11:30 a.m. (AP)

LOS ANGELES – A 10-mile stretch of one of the nation's busiest freeways will reopen beginning late Sunday morning because bridge work on the roadway was completed 16 hours ahead of schedule, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said.

There have been no major problems since Interstate 405 was shut down at midnight Friday to allow for the partial demolition of a bridge, despite warnings of a "Carmageddon" of traffic jams.

At a Sunday morning news conference, Villaraigosa said workers would start reopening the freeway at about 11:30 a.m. The 405 was expected to be fully reopened as early as midafternoon.

He praised contractors for working so quickly and thanked city residents for heeding calls to stay off the roads. The mayor also gave credit to news outlets for spreading word about the closure, which had been planned to last for 53 hours.

Crews finished demolition work on the bridge at about 7 a.m., toppling two massive pillars.

For weeks, authorities warned people that driving as usual this weekend could trigger what's been hyped as Carmageddon — an event that could back up vehicles from the 405 to surface streets and other freeways, causing a domino effect that could paralyze much of Los Angeles.

But the fears of epic traffic jams dissipated with only light weekend traffic.

"It was just so nice. It took me actually less time to get to work than it would have on a normal weekend," said Jenn Tanaguchi, a hairstylist who has to drive from downtown to her job at a salon in Brentwood. "People were telling me that i would have to leave two hours early, that everything would be blocked out. But there were no problems. It was such a nice ride."

The California Department of Transportation was preparing to reopen the freeway in phases. The off-ramps would open first, then the freeway itself, followed by the on-ramps, the mayor said.

The 405 could be fully reopened as early as 3 p.m., according to Metropolitan Transportation Authority spokesman Dave Sotero.

Demolition work previously was expected to be completed by 2 a.m. Monday, followed by cleanup and reopening of the freeway at 5 a.m., with on-ramps and connectors all reopened by an hour later.

Project contractor Kiewit Infrastructure West faced a $6,000 fine in each direction for every 10 minutes of delay in getting the freeway reopened, according to the city's Metropolitan Transportation Authority. That's a total of $72,000 an hour.

Villaraigosa said Saturday workers have made "great progress" on demolition of the half-century-old Mulholland Bridge. Powerful machines with long booms hammered away at the south side of the span, which was being removed to allow construction of an additional freeway lane. The plan was to leave the north-side lanes standing until the south side is rebuilt. Another closure will be required in the future to demolish the north side.

The project picked up its apocalyptic name when Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky said at an early June new conference that "this doesn't need to be a Carmageddon" if people avoided driving.

The drumbeat of warnings about the weekend triggered an instant industry of businesses trying to capitalize. JetBlue offered special flights from Burbank in the San Fernando Valley to Long Beach, with seats for the short hop costing just $4 or $5.

A cycling group saw that as an opportunity for a race. The cyclists started their ride 90 minutes before the flight's departure time to simulate the time that passengers would have to arrive at Burbank. Another member of the group took the flight and all were to meet at a Long Beach park.

Cyclist Stephan Andranian said it took the bikers one hour and 34 minutes to complete the ride from Burbank to Long Beach, largely following the Los Angeles River. Flight passenger Joe Anthony's total travel time including cab ride from Long Beach Airport to the park was just over 2 1/2 hours.

"We want to show that using a bike in LA is not only possible but that it can be faster than other modes of transportation," Andranian said.

Some trespassers have crept on the 405.

Officials report a bicyclist made it onto the road before getting escorted off by police, a man was cited for driving on the roadway, several people were found putting up a large sign, and a man was caught scaling a perimeter fence.

Many mocked the frenzied language surrounding the closure, especially on Twitter, where Hollywood's comedians had at their hometown.

"How's everyone coping with this terrifying apocalyptic nightmare of having to ... oh my god ... stay home with your family?!!!" Bill Maher wrote.

Albert Brooks took a more philosophical in his Tweet: "If we would close the freeways every weekend we would have a great society."

View the original article here

In LA, dire warnings as freeway closure looms (AP)

LOS ANGELES – Thousands of doctors and nurses will bunk at hospitals, an emergency operation center will be set up and Southern California residents are being urged to stay home and stock up on food.

One major airline offered $4 seats to help people avoid the looming mess, selling out of tickets in three hours.

The crisis?

A 10-mile stretch of Interstate 405 — a vital artery that links population centers north and south of the Santa Monica Mountains — is shutting down for 53 hours this weekend. The closure, a necessary part of a major highway reconstruction project, is being dubbed "Carmageddon," evoking images of gridlock, road rage and other traffic nightmares that it might spawn in car-dependent Southern California.

Celebrities are among those sounding the alarm, via Twitter messages urging residents to stay off the road starting at midnight Friday.

"This weekend, LA! Avoid Carmageddon, Gas-zilla, 405-enstein, Grid-lock-apalooza! STAY HOME. Eat & shop local," Tom Hanks tweeted this week.

Beyond 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. 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.

The UCLA Health System placed advanced orders for medical supplies and food, even preparing 5,200 box lunches for staff, ahead of the shutdown. It has three helicopter companies on standby to transport patients and human organs in the event of emergency operations.

"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 Center. He planned to sleep in the E.R. throughout the weekend instead of commuting the 20 miles from his home in Torrance to the hospital.

Authorities are hammering the same message to drivers. Starting last month, they flashed freeway electronic signs warning drivers to "EXPECT BIG DELAYS."

"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. "Be prepared, treat it like it's a disaster."

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. 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.

Authorities 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. They expect another closure next year to replace the other half.

To discourage driving, transit officials will offer free rides on the subway and certain bus lines and add more train service.

Anticipating potential backups caused by drivers who won't heed the warnings, the city plans to deploy traffic engineers to monitor the ripple effect on roads and to manage key intersections. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is urging residents to stay close to home and shop locally if they must go out.

"We need every Angeleno to chip in and turn this Carmageddon into a unique opportunity," he said Wednesday.

Villaraigosa's not the only one seizing the opportunity to drum up business this weekend.

A helicopter company is advertising $150 rides to zip people to downtown and Los Angeles International Airport. JetBlue is providing $4 to $5, 30-minute "Over the 405" flights between Long Beach Airport and Bob Hope Airport in Burbank, calling the service a "planepool" between the San Fernando Valley and the beach.

Hotels and restaurants are offering discounts, movie theaters along the freeway are giving away popcorn. A fitness instructor suggests "Carmageddon yoga" for stressed-out drivers. And Dr. Arnold Klein, Michael Jackson's longtime dermatologist, is giving 25 percent off on Botox injections.

"Instead of being stuck on the freeway and not being able to do anything you could be in my office and be more beautiful," Klein said.

Waze, a company that provides GPS navigation applications for smartphones, set up a website and plastered posters across the city to urge drivers to sign up for its service and survive "this imminent disaster."

Dire warnings have been shown to work during the 1984 summer Olympics and a 1987 visit by Pope John Paul II. The city braced for the worst, but traffic flowed freely because people avoided driving.

Some people are making the best of the circumstance by organizing mass bicycle rides and neighborhood parties.

The pastor of a church on Mulholland Drive moved his Sunday service to a theater so his roughly 3,000 congregants can worship.

Mark Wadsworth of Bel Air Presbyterian Church said he doesn't expect everyone to attend. He compared the circumstance to Colorado, where he previously preached, when fewer people showed on snowy days.

"This is the L.A. version of a snow Sunday," he said.

Meanwhile Moshe Shmuel, who's expecting 120 guests at his Saturday wedding, said he was worried that some people flying in from Israel and South Africa may have trouble getting from the airport to the ceremony at a private estate in Bel Air. He told his guests to leave extra early so they can show up on time.

"Lucky for us, the rabbi lives close-by. He doesn't need to take the freeway," Shmuel said.

View the original article here