Fire Creates Monumental Traffic Jam

By forcing the closure of a three-mile downtown section of the Hollywood Freeway, a fire in a Metro Rail tunnel early Friday created one of the region’s worst traffic jams ever--trapping thousands of morning commuters for hours on the San Bernardino, Pomona, Foothill and Santa Ana freeways.

California Highway Patrol officers closed all north and southbound lanes of U.S. 101 between the Harbor and San Bernardino freeways at 2:30 a.m., severing a vital artery in a highway system that carries more than 1.4 million people through the center of Los Angeles each day.

“I cannot remember a time when the Hollywood Freeway has been closed down in both directions,” said Lydia Martinez, a CHP spokeswoman. “That is the major artery downtown.”

It was not known when the stretch of freeway would be reopened. Caltrans officials said a meeting will be held Sunday to weigh the damage and consider the options. The freeway will be closed through the weekend and possibly into next week, officials said.

While the freeway remained closed throughout the day, emergency measures employed by various government agencies and downtown employers succeeded in avoiding outbound gridlock Friday afternoon. Officials from Caltrans, the CHP and the city’s Transportation Department had urged downtown businesses to allow employees to leave for home as early as 2 p.m. Friday.

At the same time, a late-afternoon truck accident closed all four northbound lanes of the San Diego Freeway in the San Fernando Valley. The accident, which involved a load of asbestos-laden sawdust, blocked another key section of the freeway system for several hours during the evening commute.

During the morning rush hours, commuters traveling from the eastern San Gabriel Valley to downtown reported that their drive time was twice as long as normal. One city employee spent 2 1/2 hours driving to City Hall from her West Covina home, normally a 50-minute commute.

“I saw people throwing up their hands, turning around and going home,” said Donna Schwarz, 42, an analyst in the city Department of Aging who found herself stuck on the Pomona Freeway. “The phrase ‘You can’t get there from here’ was invented for today.”

Schwarz eventually decided to get off the clogged highway and onto Atlantic Boulevard in East Los Angeles. Zigzagging on surface streets, she arrived at work 45 minutes late.

“Our boss wasn’t holding it against us,” she said. “Everyone from the Eastside was late.”

As firefighters battled the early morning blaze in a Metro Rail tunnel underneath the Hollywood Freeway downtown, the men and women who monitor the ebb and flow of traffic through the nation’s most traveled urban-freeway system struggled through the morning to avert gridlock.

Shortly after 2:30 a.m., Caltrans workers placed movable signs on the Hollywood, Santa Ana and other freeways, notifying commuters of the downtown freeway closure and directing them to alternate routes. Later, Caltrans posted signs advising drivers to tune in to special AM radio broadcasts with traffic reports made from portable transmitters.

By 8 a.m., commuters were avoiding the crippled Hollywood Freeway, only to jam other major arteries, including the far-away Foothill and San Diego freeways.

“Generally, it has affected everything in the system at one point or another,” CHP Officer Martinez said as the morning commute began to wind down about 9 a.m.

Freakishly, gridlock on some inbound freeways meant easy going on some downtown streets.

“The (inner) part of downtown seems to be actually lighter,” said Brian Gallagher, an engineer with the city Transportation Department. “Getting into downtown is the difficult part. Once you get past the freeways, it’s pretty clear.”

Gallagher directed efforts at the Transportation Department’s control center to keep traffic flowing on those surface streets that became alternate routes for freeway motorists.

By manipulating traffic signals, Gallagher said, transportation officials were able to keep the traffic flowing at a relatively smooth pace.

The Transportation Department also deployed traffic officers at surface streets crowded by those who had given up on the freeways. One officer, Bob Johnson, was called in early, around 2 a.m., to begin redirecting traffic.

“A lot of people come up wondering where they can get on the freeway,” Johnson said. “I have to tell them the alternate routes. People will ask why they can’t come through. I guess they don’t listen to the radio.”

Others motorists, however, seemed well informed of the freeway closure, and many opted to avoid the unpleasant commute altogether.

At one Broadway law office, 30-year-old secretary Laura Escalante sat alone. Two attorneys in her office had chosen to stay in the San Fernando Valley rather than negotiate the Hollywood Freeway.

“The other secretary, her car stalled. So she’s not here either,” Escalante said, adding that her 20-minute commute from Monterey Park had been a 75-minute ordeal.

Later in the day, with the Hollywood Freeway remaining closed, officials turned their attention to the homebound commute, which peaks between 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. On most afternoons, about 40,000 cars carrying 100,000 commuters leave downtown each hour.

Several downtown businesses complied with an LAPD request to send workers home early.

The 1,200 employees at the downtown corporate headquarters of Unocal were told shortly after the lunch hour that they were “free to go home after 3:30 p.m.” if their commute was affected by the freeway closure, said Barry Lane, spokesman for Unocal.

First Interstate’s 4,500 downtown employees also were encouraged by supervisors to finish work early, said Simon Barkerbenfield, senior vice president of corporate public relations.

Meanwhile, Caltrans workers set up detour signs on downtown streets directing motorists away from closed freeway on-ramps.

In the afternoon rush, the measures appeared to work.

“Everything is surprisingly light,” said CHP Officer Dan Bower. “This morning was a lot worse. We were expecting it to be lighter because everyone left early.

“The only problems we’re having are on the surface streets,” he said. “Once they get on the freeways, it’s all open. Isn’t that funny? It’s usually the other way around.”

Experienced commuters took circuitous routes home, hoping to avoid the most congested freeways. Maria Lans, a 42-year-old a legal assistant, explained how she planned to get home to Pasadena.

“I can always take Figueroa (Street) and pass across the 110 (Freeway) without getting on the freeway downtown,” Lans said as she filled her car with gas at a downtown service station. “Then I could skirt along Dodger Stadium and pick up the 110 at the overpass right near the entrance to Dodger Stadium.

“And then I just hope for the best.”

Some downtown workers downplayed the traffic problems. Greg Nelson, an assistant to Los Angeles City Councilman Joel Wachs, was one of many commuters who “zoomed right in” to work in the morning. And he expected few problems on the long drive back home to Orange County.

“I look at these things as a challenge,” he said. “It’s like a maze. You get off one route and you try another. It’s a challenge. Life is not always perfect. Things like this add a little variety.”

Also contributing to the tunnel fire coverage were Times staff writers Paul Feldman, Paul Lieberman, Victor Merina, Dean Murphy, Ron Smith, Ronald B. Taylor, Tracy Wilkinson and Tracy Wood.