The Region - News from Dec. 12, 1986

Traffic was snarled for several hours on the busy Santa Ana Freeway in Irvine after a California Department of Transportation crane struck a bridge, closing all southbound lanes. Highway Patrol officers said traffic was diverted from the freeway at Culver Drive and rerouted back to the freeway at Jeffrey Road from 2 a.m. to 9 a.m., when the southbound lanes were reopened. Irvine police said city streets were jammed by drivers seeking alternate routes. The crane had been used for work on the Yale Avenue bridge but had not been fully retracted before workers started to drive it away, officials said. Steel beams on the bridge were bent and had to be replaced after the accident. There were no injuries, CHP officials said.