Carmageddon was not the end of the world. Here’s the traffic map at 4:30 p.m. Saturday:
Carmageddon was not the end of the world. Here’s what it was like on Sepulveda Boulevard in the Pass southbound and northbound shortly before 10 a.m.:
Carmageddon was not the end of the world. Here’s what traffic was like Friday night just before they closed the ramps in Sepulveda Pass:
Carmageddon was not the end of the world. Here’s the Mulholland Bridge demolition scene at Hour 10 Saturday:
Photos by \Mark Barnhill, last photo by Haim Linder.
More fearful than carmageddon is the stupidity of our Mayor, political leaders and media who turned it into this affair. It is a weekend and most people spend it at home home anyway. Other than crucial trips to LAX & people who work on weekends in that particular area, what was the big deal.
I do believe that you are right…City Hall Gang
changing the subject from admitting that they
are using LA for their own ambitions and stealing
from the public by their expensive projects for
which there is no money without increasing taxes.
This remodeling of the bridge, to be repeated
nexr year for the opposite side of the bridge
is costiing us a fortune and there is no money
to pay for it. So they will borrow even more.
I don’t understand why the public is putting up with it. It is not for us, it is for them and
their rich friends who benefit.
Projects like this should never be on borrowed money. Waiting for 1 more year is stupid. Doesn’t require such a long wait. Man hours, overtime.. can’t wait for the big one.
This is a Catch 22. Carmageddon worked because every believed it and stayed away. But if now, everyone believes everything is fine and wants to check out how light traffic is, then there will be gridlock.
OMG!!! What a bunch of fools!! This story was on every national media outlet coverage. IT made LA look like a bunch of idiots who can’t follow instructions. I want the Mayor to pay for the LAPD helicopter air show he did for the media. Even the fwys 60, 105 and even the 10 were not conjested at all. It was like the old time 1984 Olympics. This story was so over blown and the incompetent morons on council exaggerated cause I agree to deflect from their failures. What was Tom LaBongle and Cardenas doing at the press conf.? I’m getting tired of these bafoons jumping in every photo op.
The Mayor is struggling for something (anything) that he can exploit to make it look like he has done something (anything) right in his reign. I promise you that he will be throwing this up in our faces every chance he gets as one of the huge successes of his 2 terms in office. He is still trying to get the “Failure” tag off of himself. The truth is he has been a complete failure as the leader of this city. I wish some reporter had the balls to use one of his manipulative “press” conferences about this weekend’s closure to ask him about the city’s financial situation or about all the FBI investigations into City Hall. The local media is playing the perfect tool to him and his advisers. Also, by exaggerating this weekend’s freeway closure, they have set themselves up for a much bigger challenge in 12-18 months when they have to close the 405 again to take down the second half of the bridge. This time they scared everyone off of the roads. Next time, the public will remember this as the joke it was and not heed any requests to stay off the roads. You reap what you sow.
There is a lot to complain about with the City Council and Mayor, but not on the handling of the 405 closure.
When something happens that is right, don’t trash the Mayor the City nor the City of LA on this one.
Yes the Mayor and two Councilmen are publicity hogs, but that’s it.
No one looks like idiots here. The planning and execution of the 405 closure/Mulholland Bridge worked out flawlessly.
Caltrans, Zev Yaroslavsky, Kiewit Construction, all tried to get expectations down and scare everyone away. It worked.
And the private Contractor, Kiewit performed flawlessly. And everyone was prepared including the Paramedics who were prepared with off-road motorcycles and backpacks to carry their equipment.
The is a shinning moment for LA.
To July 17, 2011 7:50 AM:
Your Quote: “IT made LA look like a bunch of idiots who can’t follow instructions.”
My Question to you: What was your blood alcohol level when you wrote this?
Everyone followed instructions and that is why the traffic was clear for all major routes and alternate routes.
And like the I-10 repairs following the Northridge Earthquake, everyone, especially the private Contractor, performed beyond expectations.
This is something to celebrate and yes it was NOT the result of elected officials EXCEPT for their part of getting the word out.
When you attack something that worked out in a world-class way, your credibility comes into question.
9:40 am wrote:
“The is a shinning moment for LA.”
Okay we all know you really meant, “This is a shining moment for LA.”
Thank you for supporting my point! Is this really how LOW the bar has been set for leadership in this City, County and State? If you are not already a P.R. flack, you should consider abandoning your current career and following your true calling in life! But thanks for the good laugh anyway! Shining moment. That’s a good one!
WTF? I see the Mayorhas his lapdog spinsters on here posting. 10:08 moron who says the people followed instructions that why everything was ok on the 405 fwy. It did make LA look like a bunch of idiots because they blew this story so high out of proportion the Mayor and the other idiots on council acted as if Los Angeles residents were so stupid they weren’t going to do what was asked of them.
Ron, can you find out how much money the BONUS was in the contract if the job on the 405 fwy Mulholland Bridge was finished early? I heard on the radio if the job was finished earlier then the expected Monday deadline a huge bonus was in the contract. IF this is true why hell is the Mayor celebrating a successful job done or who the hell thought it would take til Monday to do? The 405 Fwy opened at 11:30am TODAY!!!
Because the closure is ending early, Los Angeles is saving $400,000 on construction costs. Kiewit is receiving $300,000 as a financial incentive.
Are the taxpayers of Los Angeles going to pay this bonus??
Great job by the Construction Company.
20/Number of Hours Projected=20%. (Appoximately) Next time “how U” gona factor in the next bonus?
Will any of the Bonus Money be reinvested in L.A.? To a Library? Better make good to the Community for their Support. Staying home, keeping away from the rat race, getting to know our neighbors, lets do this again next week. Mr. Mayor, Look, Our roads, our tax dollars. Our Palms.
If the federal goverment creates jobs visa via infrastructure repair, I hope we get a Mayor and a Team of Men working together for the City not for to grandstand and hand out phony bonus’s. 18 Hours Under. That’s by design.
Next time make it 18 hrs less. That to me would be the time; not withstanding safety the time to beat. But why are we trying to beat time? The Hype for the Bonus. Carmaggeddon. Create the illusion; They better hurry.
Our tax money should not be spent on “bonus’ because if we can go to space, we can tear apart concrete. Roll as Americans during the recovery.
The construction team torn down half a bridge; it’s not their first and next year they can do it again. The public does not want their Mayor grand-standing
“Because the closure is ending early, Los Angeles is saving $400,000 on construction costs. Kiewit is receiving $300,000 as a financial incentive.
Are the taxpayers of Los Angeles going to pay this bonus??”
Thank you for the information. If there is a $400,000 savings in construction, I’m sure it will be devoured by any overages. Or will Kiewit be presenting a check for $400,000 to the project managers any time soon? I doubt it!!! Off topic, but please remember, the project could have saved $10 million dollars and 18 months of construction by going with the alternative to build the new bridge in place and tear the old one down after the new one was finished. The NIMBY’s in Bel Air made sure that didn’t happen. I still can’t figure that one out. Why would they want to submit themselves to 18 more months of construction than necessary? I wonder how many Kiewit executives live at Mountain Gate or in Bel Air Crest?
They torn down half of a bridge. It’s not that hard. Put a little cusion on the road and that’s it. The rest is co-ordination.
They are building tunnels and tear this amt of debri at the click of the key when the machine turns on. This project was very small.
It’s like asking Jack LaLanne to do 75 push-ups. The task will not challenge his musclar body or his aerobic system.
The Los Angeles Times show the Stanley Tips http://lat.ms/rnMK1Q
This other photo shows the simplity, really. http://bit.ly/q5cwXl | http://lat.ms/oWQiWV
So let’s talk about what the challenge was. To keep folks off the freeway, which requires co-ordination and communication. And, we can do large scale rehab construction projects.
Kiewit can hire,help put people back to work.
9:40 a.m., the Mayor is so repulsive to most because of what he has done to our city. He has sold our city to AEG & other developers, passed a bogus budget, ruined an excellent neighborhood with his 6-foot high wall on a house he doesn’t own, appointed the most disgraceful Commissioners and Department Managers who continue to ruin our city, and you wonder why we don’t give him credit. Credit for what? That he found a photo-op to fly on a tax-payer funded helicopter on a media-hyped project so he could get his mug everywhere. Enough already. Get his ass back in the Mayor’s office to do some serious work. We have enough rock/film stars in this city without this uneducated wannabe.
Okay ‘antonio’ now that the highly efficient demolition crew completed and reopened the 405 Freeway in record time…..let’s hear your excuse why you can’t have the same efficient results of eliminating the blighted, disgusting, graffiti on our freeway walls, when your ‘anti-gang’ program is funded by tens of millions of hard-working, taxpayer dollars ?
david barron
barron4cc.com
Sorry David Barron, but let’s just drink the Media’s Coolaid for a second…
Why not PERMANENTLY close the 405 freeway to cars EACH WEEKEND? Make it a bike/skateboard Only ZONE ON SAT AND SUN? Why not ban the use of airconditioners between 1pm and 5pm? Why not ban the watering of lawns except on Wednesdays? Why not DOUBLE the property taxes on non-residential property owners?
I looked at some of these motorhomes today. Shit, these things have EVERYTHING you need in life–and some come in sizes that you can drive as easy as a minivan!
Let’s just sell our homes, buy these portable go-anywhere houses, and JUST LIVE OFF THE FAT OF THE FUCKING LAND! Like the Old West, but 2011 style! Apply for all that free Gov’t cheese, and bank the savings by buying Gold. Then when there’s the expected RIOTS, you just move off to HIGHER GROUND!
These liberals DO have the right idea David. You and I just have to make some adjustments and start living like humans instead of Taxpayers surrounded by a sea of union and AEG sharks!
We’re the PROBLEM, David. We just have to find a way to stop FUNDING THE CITY HALL’S CORRUPT MACHINE with their endless grabs of $$$$ from our overtaxed lives! Once the bill payers (who are clearly outnumbered by the Janis Hahn voter-scumbags) shut off the money supply, then we’ll see how they’ll sell Convention Centers for a God Damn Dollar! We can’t vote out these theives, that’s affirmative. We can’t get the Feds to clean it up (see Bell, CA.) We can’t get anyone elected to watch the public funds.
I’ve been seeing these motorhomes EVERYWHERE around the valley. Folks just live on the streets, get a mail drop, and collect their free money from the Gov’t WITHOUT EVEN PAYING RENT OR A DWP BILL!!! Yes, like the song:
MAYBE PARADISE IS A PARKING LOT?
How funny it was to listen to the tourist from Switzerland tell a reporter how surprised she was that closing a fwy was made out to be such a big deal. EXACTLY. Overblown, exaggerated beyond the ridiculous and all because the gangster Mayor is bored and had nothing better to do.
The Swiss tourist laughs as she buys $1.16/American for every Franc she exchanges! Then she really gets a belly ache at visiting a nation 15 TRILLION IN DEBT giving A GANGSTA MAYOR A BIG SHOUT OUT FOR OPENING A CLOGGED FREEWAY A FEW HOURS EARLY! Woopie! Gridlock on Monday as usual!
Then she’ll buy a house here for cash, rent it out, and fly back to Geneva telling her buddies about the new Roman Empire’s collapse!
It’s a great time to be born a Swiss citizen!
The Mayor and City Council are crooks and jerks.
But forgetting his grandstanding, what if the opposite happened and there was no major notification effort (MTA, the press, etc)?
Are you saying that there would not have been gridlock?
“I wonder how many Kiewit executives live at Mountain Gate or in Bel Air Crest? ”
Well seeing as Kiewit is based in Omaha, none. They’re also a construction company, which is as blue collar as it gets and their workers were driving heavy machinery on dirt slopes next to the 405 at 2 in the morning while you were fast asleep.
And that incentive for finishing the project on time was written into the bidding contract a long time ago, as was the $6000/10 min penalty Kiewit would have to pay if they went over. Otherwise, the way human nature works, I guarantee you the 405 would still be closed this morning.
If it were unioninized city employees, the freeway would be closed an entire week.
Grand-standing can be dangerous with the Mayor. He loves the “spot-light”. He becomes, ZORO the unstoppable. It’s like a sex addition. Recall the BYD with Governor: he said over so many time, I love this, I love this. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOzHLz5r0Dw
But that can back fire: Dodger Stadium