The 10 Freeway reopened Sunday evening, just in time for the Monday commute and a week of holiday travel in Los Angeles.
Aerial footage from NewsChopper 4 captured several cars traveling on both eastbound and westbound lanes of a portion of the freeway that’s been closed for more than a week. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said crews will continue to work on the on- and off-ramps to reopen them.
In a press release, Gov. Gavin Newsom said the lanes reopened at 6:30 p.m. Sunday.
"Traffic is now flowing on five lanes in each direction between Alameda Street and the East Los Angeles interchange, ahead of tomorrow morning’s commute and before the Thanksgiving holiday, reducing the disruption to Los Angeles commuters," Newsom said in his statement
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Newsom's statement came with a warning to commuters, who should expect intermittent lane closures and temporary closures on "occasional weekends and overnight."
The reopening follows Caltrans’ announcement that it would begin opening the freeway Sunday night and "have the freeway fully open with all five lanes in each direction available for tomorrow morning’s commute between Alameda Street and the East Los Angeles interchange."
The damaged stretch of road handles about 300,000 vehicles per day. Authorities initially feared repair work might include demolition, which would have meant months of closures. Newsom previously announced the freeway would reopen Tuesday after crews ruled out demolition and worked to repair damaged support columns under the bridge.
Drivers faced more than a week of detours in the area that led to delays on nearby freeways and streets as crews worked around the clock to reopen the lanes.
State officials said Wednesday that contractors had removed all of the debris and hazardous materials from beneath the damaged freeway stretch. Caltrans officials said about 264,000 cubic feet of material was removed, enough to fill four Olympic-size swimming pools. More than two dozen burned vehicles were also removed from the area.
That work was completed two days ahead of schedule.
There are more than 250 people working at the job site on 12-hour shifts, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, officials said.
