This is going to be inconvenient: I580 collapses

Photo from SFGate.com (SF Chronicle)


John Baynham mapped the collapsed section with Google maps (via NWZCHIK)

New York Times:
SAN FRANCISCO, April 29 — A fiery pre-dawn tanker truck accident caused the collapse of heavily used freeway overpass near downtown Oakland early this morning, sending hundreds of feet of concrete and steel roadway crashing down onto a highway below, and probably complicating the lives of thousands of Bay Area commuters for months to come.
[...]
The damaged sections of the interchange are likely to take months to repair. Bay Area Rapid Transit, the railway system connecting San Francisco tothe East Bay whose tracks run nearby, was not affected by the accident, though additional trains were being added today to accommodate travelers unable to drive through the area.
The freeways in this area, the "MacArthur Maze", are so tangled I'm not sure exacly which freeways are blocked by this accident. But it's going to be a huge pain in the ass for me.

Updates can be found here.

Comments

grishnash said…
From the map you posted it looks like the maneuvers that are no longer possible are:

1. Heading east on I-580 from the Bay Bridge.
2. Getting on I-880 from I-80 West/I-580 East.

It will be inconvenient to be sure, but it doesn't appear as bad as losing some other parts of the interchange would have been. I would suggest the following ways to get around it for the two blocked routes:

1. Leaving the bridge, use I-880 to reach Oakland locations rather than I-580. For points further east, use I-238 to reach I-580. Or if you absolutely have to reach I-580 or the Caldecott Tunnel, exit onto surface streets on Grand Ave and left on Northgate to reach the I-580/CA-24/I-980 interchange. The latter is probablg going to be absolutely packed, and I wouldn't be surprised if they use temporary barriers to make it a pseudo-freeway like they did with some detours after the Santa Monica Freeway collapsed in the Northridge Quake.

2. This one should be easier. Just stay on I-580 Eastbound until you reach I-980, and use that to cut back to I-880.

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