🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <tamdan-3003950029010001@ip037.lax.primenet.com> tamdan@primenet.com (Tamar Bihari) writes:
>I'm planning to drive from LA to SF this weekend, and I remember hearing
>that a section of the 5 was washed out in one of the recent rainstorms. 
>My husband remembers hearing that they built a temporary bridge that then
>got washed out too.  Something like that, anyway.  So:  anyone know
>anything more current?  Should we avoid the 5 and take the 101? 
>
>And actually, I have no idea where the damage is located.  
>
>Basically, I'm clueless.  Anyone willing to clue me in will be awarded my
>own personal medal of honor. 

I drove 5 from Sacramento to Los Angeles yesterday, March 30.

The bridge over the Arroyo Potrero washed out. This is
a few miles from Coalinga.  CC Myers, who rebuilt the 
Santa Monica Fwy section that went down in the
Northridge quake, is doing the repair.

A temporary bridge has been built out of railroad flatcars. It has
one lane each direction. The southbound side is straight through
and therefore has no curve to get onto the detour -- there is very
little delay, it's 25 mph and a little rough. The northbound side,
which I drove Wednesday night, has a curve when entering the
detour, and is, therefore, a little slower -- maybe 20 mph. There
is a CHP car sitting at each end, adjacent to an electronic speed
read-out. Northbound (it was almost all truck traffic, being at
night) I probably lost 2 minutes. Southbound, maybe 1 minute.
They are working 24/7 -- Cliff Myers likes those early-finish bonuses.

The hills, by the way, are very green in the portion of the route north
of Kettleman. The southern part looks better now than you're ever 
likely to see it (the 50 miles north of the Grapevine, which is usually
very gray and brown and ugly, is actually fairly green, but curing
up rapidly. The temperature was in the low 70's.)