Major Los Angeles area highway closed for bridge demolition

BURBANK — No major backups have been reported after a major Southern California highway was closed for 36 hours in both directions while crews demolish a bridge.

Motorists were urged to find alternate routes after a section of Interstate 5 through Burbank was shut down Saturday afternoon.

If all goes as planned the key artery connecting Los Angeles and San Francisco was set to reopen at 3 a.m. today, just ahead of the morning rush hour.

Traffic on California roadways has been light for the past month as fewer residents venture outside during the coronavirus pandemic.

Construction workers are tearing down a bridge so they can widen the freeway and add a pair of carpool lanes on the notoriously congested route that 230,000 vehicles traversed daily.

The closure was announced in early March before the statewide stay-at-home orders were adopted.

It’s largest freeway shutdown in the Los Angeles area since Interstate 405 was closed in both directions for upgrades in 2012. That event that came to be known widely as Carmageddon for fears it would cause traffic chaos.

In the end, the traffic jams that officials feared could have gridlocked the entire city that weekend never materialized as people got the word and stayed away.