The freeway will be closed from midnight Friday to 6:00 a.m. Saturday (6/7/08). The next night, the northbound lanes will be closed from midnight Saturday to 7:00 a.m. Sunday morning.
The 50-year-old 101/580 interchange in San Rafael needed seismic upgrades and widening for carpool lanes. When completed, the work going on there will help create uninterrupted north and southbound /*HOV lanes*/ from Highway 1 to Highway 37. That's more important than ever in a county without /*BART*/ or /*Caltrain*/.
"You'll have carpools, but you'll also have employee vanpools, express buses sailing through the traffic mornings and evenings and in the most densely populated part of Marin County," says Bob Haus from /*Caltrans*/.
This weekend the freeway will close overnight Friday so southbound traffic can be moved from existing lanes onto the new roadway.
And then overnight Saturday, a Caltrans animation shows how northbound lanes will be shifted onto the old southbound lanes, leaving the old northbound lanes free for construction.
This will be in place until late September. Then northbound traffic will move back onto the new road, leaving the middle lanes to be turned into HOV lanes.
The new and wider southbound 101/580 connector opened in April.
On Saturday morning, along with the new southbound lanes, a new exit ramp to Francisco Boulevard and Anderson Drive will open.
"The existing off ramp was fine for existing traffic levels in 1956, when people were driving Studebakers and Hudsons and even okay in the 70s when people were driving Pintos and Gremlins, but it's just not cutting it any more," says Haus.
The target date for entire project completion is in December.
Hwy 101 Gap closure construction: click here
Caltrans web site: www.dot.ca.gov
