Despite predictions that construction on the Pit River Bridge over Lake Shasta, Calif. would lead to delays of up to two hours this weekend, there was “smooth sailing” for California-bound drivers, a California highway department spokesman said.
Michael Mayor said that although the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) predicted 35 minute backups on Wednesday and two-hour delays Sunday, traffic moved along at the 45 m.p.h. speed limit for most of the weekend. The longest delay came Saturday evening, when southbound traffic was delayed for 45 minutes. Even that delay cleared up fairly soon, Mayor said.”I think people heeded the warnings,” he said.
Caltrans did report heavy traffic on I-5 Sunday evening, however, when vehicles were being stopped from snow chain control in Oregon, although the congestion was unrelated to the construction.
Prior to the start of the holiday weekend, Caltrans sent out news releases, ran newspaper advertisements and posted signs along Interstate 5 warning drivers of the possible delays. Motorists were encouraged to travel at alternate dates and times and were provided phone numbers to call for information.
Mayor said that callers can leave messages on the Caltrans information line if they have any concerns about the traffic, but he had not received any as of Sunday afternoon.
Between 800 and 900 vehicles per hour cross the bridge on a normal day. On Sunday afternoon, Mayor said there were about 1,200 per hour passing on Saturday and possibly 2,200 on Sunday, although exact counts were not available. That constituted a smaller number of motorists than Caltrans expected, Mayor said, and there was also less commercial truck traffic than expected. Truck drivers either got their deliveries done early or took alternate routes because of the anticipated delays, Mayor said.
The only unanticipated problem came when the Web cam near the bridge stopped working on Wednesday night after a storm came through. Mayor said the camera may have been struck by lightning but was working again by Friday afternoon.
Although traffic along I-5 between Portland and Eugene was slow on Sunday afternoon, the Oregon Department of Transportation said the delays were mostly due to the number of people who travel this weekend and not the stormy weather.
“There has been pretty heavy traffic because people have been coming back,” ODOT spokesman Dave Thompson said. “People can fully expect to have delays just because there are so many people on the road.”
On Wednesday afternoon, the large volume of travelers tied up traffic along I-5 north of Salem as motorists slowed to look at two accidents.
University student Kathy King was waiting for her parents to arrive from Beaverton. They were driving to Southern California and were stopping to pick up King on the way. After leaving Beaverton at 2 p.m., they did not arrive in Eugene until 5:45 – according to Mapquest the drive from Beaverton to Eugene should take one hour and 49 minutes.
King said she looked up traffic conditions online and saw that two accidents were causing a bottleneck between Salem and Albany, Ore. so she “knew what they were getting into.”
By the time King’s parents passed the accident sites, they had been cleared away, but traffic crawled along as people stopped to look.
The family did not arrive in Southern California until 4 a.m., several hours later than expected.
“It threw our schedule off, but it was OK because we got there safe,” King said.
Thompson said there were no unanticipated weather-related problems over the weekend, although the mountain roads did have a lot of snow. He said more storms are expected tonight with the possibility of snow on the ground in the Portland area.
“Travel will be much more difficult, so people need to give themselves much more time to get around and have an alternate plan in case it gets really bad,” he said.
People driving in inclement weather conditions, particularly if there is snow, should make sure their cars are in good working order, have a full gas tank and should carry water with them, Thompson said.
He also said state law requires anyone traveling in snow zones to carry chains or have traction tires on their cars. There is a $144 fine for not carrying traction devices.
ODOT has a Web site where travelers can check one of 200 Web cams for live updates of the weather on Oregon highways. The site, www.tripcheck.com, provides live views of the roads and also give information on the wind, temperature and other conditions.
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