Section of 710 Fwy to be closed for nine weekends

EAST LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- A stretch of the 710 Freeway through East Los Angeles will be closed for nine weekends starting this Friday while Caltrans works on a pavement replacement project.

The northbound lanes of the Long Beach Freeway will be closed between the 5 and 60 freeways, starting Friday at 10 a.m. until Monday at 4 a.m.

The closures will start this weekend and last through the weekend of Dec. 16-19.

Four weekends during this period are exceptions when the lanes will remain open: Oct. 7-10; Oct. 28-31; Nov. 11-14 and Nov. 25-28.

The work involves placing 747 concrete panels, that each range in size between 14 feet and 47 feet wide, along the two right lanes of the northbound 710, according to Caltrans spokesperson Lauren Wonder.

She noted that detours will be available, but local streets in the area will likely get clogged.

"There will be a local street detour but if you have 100,000 vehicles on those local streets you are going to have major gridlock on the local streets," Wonder said.

Caltrans also wants to remind drivers to be safe when driving near freeway workers. The transportation agency recently lost one of its workers when a big rig veered onto a shoulder of the 14 Freeway in Acton where highway crews were working.

"We recently had a death of an employee and so it really drives home the fact that these are areas where we need people to be aware of the workers," Wonder said.

More information about the closures, as well as advice about potential detours, can be found on the Caltrans website.