Westbound I-80 closure planned for Labor Day weekend in East Bay

VALLEJO, Calif. (KGO) -- Caltrans is closing Westbound I-80 between I-780 in Vallejo and State Route 4 in Hercules starting Thursday at 9 p.m. through Tuesday at 5 a.m.

The closure includes all Westbound I-80 lanes on the Zampa bridge across the Carquinez Straight.

"So the detours, if you're out of the area up in Sacramento, we won't have you come into the Bay Area at all," said Caltrans Spokesperson Bart Ney. "Just take I-5 all the way down. And if you're going into Oakland or San Francisco, you can use 24 or 580. For the locals that are actually in the Bay Area, the freeway is going to be closed at Highway 780 in Vallejo. So with the detour is 780 going through Vallejo and Benicia over to 680. And then once you're heading westbound on 680, you can come back over across the Highway 4 or the 24 down in Oakland."

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Ney said Caltrans will be replacing asphalt and concrete over a three-mile stretch, for ultimately, a smoother drive.

While Labor Day traffic can be a nightmare, Ney said this is actually a good time for Caltrans to do this road work, because traffic is lighter in the Bay Area.

"So it's an opportunity for us to take that bump of traffic being lower and get this work done," Ney said. "What we're hoping to do is also reduce the amount of trips. Because ,if traffic didn't reduce, we'd be looking at 200,000 vehicle trips that we'd be detouring along those detours."

This is part of a series of weekend and holiday I-80 closures. The project will finish in the fall of 2023, instead of the summer of 2024.

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