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Isn't it weird how the best job of covering the 405 freeway construction disruption so far hasn't been by any traditional media at all, but by the websites of Metro and of Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky? It's not even close. (Though we've done a lot here too.) ZevWeb put up a new package of stories today pegged to the July 15-18 shutdown of the freeway so that half of the Mulholland Drive bridge can be demolished. One focuses on the problems the closure poses for LAX, where about 350,000 passengers would typically pass through on a summer weekend.
Travelers from around the globe will also have to be made aware that the freeway will be cerrará. And fermée. And geschlossen, 被 闭, and 폐쇄.Notices of the closure are going out in eight languages via TV, print, radio, web and social media, and are expected to be further translated as they ricochet around the planet. A separate flyer is being prepared for airlines to forward to individual ticket holders.
The Los Angeles Convention and Visitors Bureau is alerting some 180,000 travel professionals, ticket brokers, hotels, restaurants, travel writers and individual tourists about the shut down via targeted newsletters, says spokesman Michael McDowell. Another 600,000 or so of the bureau’s Facebook friends and Twitter followers will also get the memo.
And for those who still manage to land here without knowing about the closure, LAX is preparing to call in extra troops of volunteer passenger information assistants to beef up the 13 information booths at the airport.
“Our goal is to ensure that passengers coming in and out plan ahead,” says Nancy Castles, public relations director for LAX, which is expected to see more than 170,500 travelers per day during that weekend, including some 52,500 international tourists.
Also new at ZevWeb: How the neighbors close to Sepulveda Pass are coping, detour maps, a landing page for all of the site's 405 stories going back a year, and a blog item by Yaroslavsky:
Allow me to be blunt: it’s going to be a mess out there....Each weekend, roughly 500,000 vehicles move through this stretch of freeway, where detours are difficult to map and navigate because of the area’s mountainous geography. Beyond the obvious traffic implications, life for residents and businesses in the 10-mile impact zone will be challenging, at best.
Photo: Uncredited at ZevWeb
Previously on LA Observed:
Details of the 405's weekend closure in July: it's Big
LA Observed on KCRW: The freeway that ate summer
405 project: No more playing nice