San Ysidro project starts smoothly

An ongoing major construction project forced the shutdown Saturday of all southbound traffic on Interstate 5 leading to the San Ysidro border crossing, with motorists from the U.S. wishing to enter Mexico directed to the Otay Mesa port of entry.

The potential nightmare got off to a smooth start Saturday, with officials reporting no major issues as crews manning excavators tackled a crucial portion of the $741million expansion of the San Ysidro port of entry.

The closures began at 3 a.m. Saturday and will remain in place until noon Monday, for a total of 57 hours.

Though cars and trucks are prohibited, public transportation is in service, and pedestrian traffic is open.

To avoid a “Carmageddon” of epic traffic snarls, authorities from the California Highway Patrol, the state Department of Transportation and the U.S. General Services Administration waged an informational campaign warning travelers of the shutdown and posting electronic signs along interstates as far north as L.A. in the weeks before the closure.

By 5 p.m. Saturday, it appeared drivers took the warnings to heart, as officials reported no major traffic problems.

“Of course there might be some things we might see that are unexpected, like accidents, but so far we have been going according to the plan,” said Lima Saft, a transportation engineer at Caltrans.

Watching from a pedestrian bridge overlooking the San Ysidro port of entry Saturday morning, Anthony Kleppe, senior asset manager for the General Services Administration, was pleased to see a 600-squarefoot steel and canvas canopy spanning I-5 had already been removed by workers using hydraulic clippers.

“This is a ballet,” Kleppe said. “There’s a tremendous amount of coordination” between contractors and government agencies, including U.S Customs and Border Protection.