After freeway fire closure, Los Angeles traffic snarled but not as bad as feared
By Steve Gorman and Daniel Trotta
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Los Angeles commuters appeared to largely heed warnings to limit their driving on Monday after a weekend fire heavily damaged an elevated stretch of a downtown freeway, forcing an indefinite closure of the structure and setting the stage for an extended traffic nightmare.
About 300,000 vehicles ply the Santa Monica Freeway daily, and the area where the blaze raged early on Saturday is often clogged with traffic even under normal circumstances.
Two days after the fire, transportation officials said they had yet to determine whether the stricken portion of the freeway can be repaired or will need to be demolished and rebuilt.
The flames, which charred support columns and the freeway deck, spread through at least two storage yards occupying the land beneath the overpass filled with stacks of wood pallets and containers, the Los Angeles Fire Department said.
It took 164 firefighters from 26 fire companies several hours to put out the blaze, according to fire officials.
No injuries were reported. The cause of the blaze was under investigation.
Despite traffic concerns, Laura Rubio-Cornejo, general manager of the Los Angeles Department of Transportation, said many motorists seemed to be minding advisories urging them away from downtown streets and to use public transit where possible.
“I am someone pleased to say that the congestion was a little better than normal,” Rubio-Cornejo said. “However, if you don’t need to be in downtown Los Angeles, please avoid those trips.”
Even so, roads in and around downtown Los Angeles were jam-packed, according to local media, and gridlock could result if there were even minor traffic accidents, as hundreds of thousands of motorists hunt for alternative routes.
California Governor Gavin Newsom on Sunday proclaimed a state of emergency in Los Angeles County in order to expedite repairs to the freeway. While touring the damage, the governor vowed to get the highway reopened as quickly as possible.
Core samples of concrete and steel rebar were being examined to determine the strength of fire-damaged structures, said Tony Tavares, director of the California Department of Transportation.
“Once we analyze the samples, we will get a clearer idea of our repair strategy,” he said. “Caltran is working 24/7, literally, to determine the engineering impact to this vital structure on Los Angeles,” he said.
In the meantime, crews were shoring up the overpass to ensure it was safe to work beneath it, and contractors were ready to start pouring concrete for new pillars if needed, Tavares said.
The damaged section of freeway, also known as the east-west Interstate 10 – or “the 10” in local parlance – was closed in both directions at a point between Interstate 5 and Interstate 110, two other major freeways vital to getting around Los Angeles, where traveling by car is the norm.
The closure, one of the area’s most consequential transportation disruptions since the 1994 Northridge earthquake buckled parts of the same freeway, was likely to last several days or longer, according to Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass.
Thousands of people were notified of the closures and alternate traffic routes through mobile alerts, the Nextdoor app, and an Instagram Live feed, the mayor said on Monday.
“Unfortunately, there’s no reason to think that this is going to be over in a couple of days,” Bass said.
The I-10 shutdown was expected to cause a ripple effect of traffic congestion throughout the region as motorists were diverted onto surrounding freeways and streets.
Commuters were urged to ride the Metrolink transit system, which said it added six additional trains to its service.
(Reporting by Daniel Trotta; additional reporting by Rich McKay in Atlanta; Editing by Noeleen Walder, Sandra Maler and Jonathan Oatis)