LA freeway to reopen weeks ahead of schedule

LOS ANGELES (CN) — The 10 Freeway, one of the main thoroughfares connecting east and west Los Angeles, will reopen by next week Tuesday, well ahead of what had been a predicted shutdown of three to five weeks.

"This is what happens when we work with urgency," said Mayor Karen Bass, in a written statement. "This is what happens when we come together. I want to make sure that there are no barriers to completely finishing the repair and that when the freeway opens up it will be completely safe. City departments will continue to respond with urgency to the impacts of the traffic closure during the ongoing construction. We will not let up."

Governor Gavin Newsom, in a statement, praised cleanup crews for "working around the clock to safely repair the 10 so we can get Los Angeles’ traffic moving in days instead of weeks.”

The 10 — which runs from San Bernardino all the way west to the Pacific Ocean, cutting through some of the biggest job centers in the region — was engulfed in flames on Saturday. The suspected cause of the fire is arson, but the blaze was heavily fueled by wooden pallets, sometimes stacked higher than the freeway itself, as well debris left under the freeway by a small business, who rented the space from a business named Apex Development, which rented the space under the 10 from the California Department of Transportation, or Caltrans.

Two months before the fire, Caltrans sued Apex for not paying its rent and for illegally subletting the property. A hearing in that lawsuit is set for early 2024.

In the days after the massive blaze, officials feared the concrete columns holding up the freeway were damaged, which would have meant tearing down a 450-foot section and rebuilding it, a process that would have taken upwards of six months. But the damage was less severe than feared.

A two-mile span of the 10 has been closed since Saturday, allowing Caltrans workers to repair bridge railings and broken concrete, paint over graffiti, clean drains and culverts, remove debris and seal broken access doors. The federal government granted the state $3 million in "quick-release emergency funding" to pay for the initial costs of cleanup and repair.

The freeway closure has exacerbated what is already a major sources of traffic congestion, the area in and around downtown LA. Mayor Bass has been urging Angelenos to take public transit in order to alleviate the situation. Bass directed the city's department of transportation to make buses in the area free, and to speed up the E Line, a light rail that runs roughly parallel with the 10 — although some riders noted, on X, formerly Twitter, that other trains faced major delays.

Even after the 10 is re-opened on Tuesday, it will still see occasional temporary closures on occasional nights and weekends, and perhaps some lanes during the day.

Freeway closures are major events in Los Angeles, and a veritable right of passage for any mayor. In 2018, the city shut down the 405 freeway, a north-south artery that connects the San Fernando Valley with West LA, for two weekends, an event known throughout the city as "Carmageddon." The planned closure received tremendous media attention and dire warnings from elected officials to stay off the roads. The weekends passed by without incident.

In 1994, sections of a few different freeways collapsed after a large earthquake hit the city. Repairs took months, but Mayor Richard Riordan received high marks for taking over key aspects of the repair and traffic management.

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