405 Freeway Shut Down for Bridge Demolition

Los Angeles - The closure of 10 miles of the San Diego (405) Freeway went into its second day today, with transit officials hoping L.A. drivers will continue staying off the roads to prevent the onset of "Carmaggedon."

>> Click here for live video of the Mulholland Bridge demolition site .

>> FOX 11 News coverage of the 405 Freeway shutdown.

Their compliance with officialdom's requests to avoid driving was so extensive Saturday that the California Highway Patrol said it recorded less than half the number of accidents reported during the same period a week earlier.

The nation's busiest freeway was shut down at midnight Friday for what was planned as a 53-hour closure to enable contractor Kiewit International to demolish the southern half of the Mulholland Bridge spanning the freeway near the Skirball Cultural Center. Kiewit is the same company that built the original bridge in 1959.

The north half of the bridge will be demolished sometime next year, meaning another lengthy freeway closure will be planned. The demolition is part of a $1.2 billion widening project to add carpool lanes and make other improvements to the 405 Freeway in the Sepulveda Pass. The overall widening project is scheduled to be completed in 2013.

The freeway and all ramps are expected to be reopened by 6 a.m. Monday, in time for the morning commute. If the freeway is not open on time, the contractor faces fines of up to $72,000 per hour.

The contractor was reported to be on schedule this morning, with workers using cutting saws, acetylene torches and jackhammers -- but not explosives --  having mostly removed the bridge's center stand by Saturday afternoon. In all, around 4,000 tons of concrete must disappear by the time the Monday morning commute rolls around.

"It's very likely that the freeway will reopen earlier than 5a.m. Monday," County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky said in remarks reported by the Daily News.

The worst-case scenario arising from the closure envisioned traffic jams throughout the region, with residents ignoring pleas to stay off the roads and searching madly for clear routes between the San Fernando Valley and L.A.'s Westside as an alternative to the shuttered 405, which is the nation's busiest freeway and is typically used by 500,000 vehicles on weekends. But with motorists displaying a surprising willingness to heed weeks of warnings, the traffic jams never materialized Saturday. In fact, traffic was so light throughout Los Angeles, it evoked thoughts of Christmas morning rather than any manifestation of armaggedon.

Between 10 p.m. Friday and 2:30 a.m. today, there were 70 accidents recorded by the CHP, compared to 160 during the same period the previous week, said CHP Officer Anthony Martin.

"With all of the media coverage, people just chose to stay in," he said.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said at a news conference held near the bridge Sunday that things were going smoothly "because people are not getting into their cars," meaning that "virtually every artery, every major street has less than normal traffic."

Yaroslavsky also reflected on the occasionally eerily quiet conditions.   "No one is on Santa Monica Beach or Zuma Beach. Hardly anyone is on Pacific Coast Highway. It's dead as a doornail out there," he said in remarks reported by the Los Angeles Times."There are no choke points anywhere we can see. There are no holdups anywhere."

Still, officials worried. Caltrans District 7 Director Mike Miles, for instance, expressed concern Sunday that  people would see light traffic conditions and try to jump on the roads.

To help keep the roads clear, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority offered free rides on the Red and Purple light rail lines, as well as on the Orange Line busway through the San Fernando Valley and 26 other bus lines on major routes in the area. But Metro ridership was light. Metrolink, however, reported that ridership doubled on some trains on the line linking Union Station in downtown Los Angeles to Oceanside in San Diego County.

The closure had promised to be highly disruptive. But despite concerns the freeway closure would affect UCLA hospitals in West Los Angeles, the medical centers were operating normally with staffing in place.

"We are ready and fully prepared to handle any emergency," said Shannon O'Kelley, chief operating officer of the UCLA Health System.

According to UCLA, more than 1,900 hospital employees were at work on time Saturday. More than 150 nurses and other workers slept in UCLA dorms, other facilities or in sections of the hospitals Friday night so they could avoid any traffic jams, and about 50 employees at Santa Monica UCLA Medical Center slept in a not-yet-open hospital wing.

In addition to providing housing for employees, the hospital system also stocked extra medical supplies and postponed some non-emergency surgeries, officials said.