101 Freeway closed this weekend for work on 6th Street Bridge. Here's how to get around
Downtown drivers, beware: Continued construction on the 6th Street Bridge will close the 101 Freeway from Friday night through Sunday afternoon.
Work on the bridge will close 2 1/2 miles of the freeway in both directions, starting where the 101 and 10 freeways split and ending where the 5, 10 and 101 interchange meets east of downtown Los Angeles, city officials said. Construction crews will remove a framework around the bridge following the installation of cable hangers along the arches over the freeway, which are now fully supported.
This weekend’s closure will also force motorists traveling west on the 60 Freeway toward downtown L.A. to find an alternate route.
The shutdown comes 5 1/2 years after the demolition of the original 84-year old bridge closed the 101 Freeway for 40 hours.
A second planned closure along the same route is scheduled for the same time — 10 p.m.-3p.m. — Nov. 5-7.
Detours around the construction zone along the major freeway artery include the following:
Motorists traveling north on the 5 Freeway from Orange County approaching the 5, 10 and 101 interchange:
Exit westbound to the 10 Freeway or take the 5 Freeway north.
Motorists also can detour around the closure by traveling north on the 710 Freeway to the 10 west or take the 10 west to the 110 north.
Motorists traveling west on the 60 Freeway from Pomona approaching the 5, 10 and 101 interchange:
Exit westbound to the 10 Freeway.
Exit northbound to the 5 Freeway.
Motorists can also try traveling to the 710 north to the 10 west or the 10 west to the 110 north.
Motorists traveling south on the 101 Freeway from the San Fernando Valley area approaching the 10 and 101 split:
Exit eastbound to the 10 Freeway.
Motorists can also travel south on the 110 to the 10 east or take the 10 east to the 710 south.
This weekend’s scheduled closure marks another milestone in construction of the new bridge known as “The Ribbon of Light,” which will feature 10 lighted sets of arches spanning across the L.A. River.
The previous iconic viaduct connecting Boyle Heights to the downtown core, which played a central role in many movies and TV shows, was demolished in 2016. City engineers determined the previous structure needed to be replaced because of seismic vulnerability and a chemical deterioration in the span’s concrete.
The replacement project was slated to be completed by late 2019, but work was delayed extensively during the pandemic.
For the record:
9:08 a.m. Oct. 22, 2021: An earlier version of this article said the next dates for the bridge work were Nov. 4-6. The dates are Nov. 5-7.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
