[Headline has been changed to reflect updates. See original story below.]
UPDATED MONDAY 8:30AM | At 4:30AM Monday morning, CalTrans announced that one lane of the 7th St. connector to the northbound I-605/I-405 has been reopened to traffic. Temporary supports were installed over the weekend.
Eastbound SR-22 to Northbound I-605/I-405 reopened to traffic.
— Caltrans District 12 (@Caltrans12) March 18, 2013
UPDATED SATURDAY 11:30AM | CalTrans tweeted Saturday morning that the entire 7th St./SR-22 freeway connector is no longer being routed off at Studebaker Rd. and that the 7th St. transition to the southbound I-405 is reopened. The bridge connecting the 7th St. connector to the northbound I-605 and I-405, however, is still being repaired and it is unclear when it will reopen.
In addition to Friday’s incident which damaged the bridge, the same connector was scheduled to be closed during weekdays for two weeks so that pile driving activity adjacent to the connector could be completed. It is unclear if that work will continue as planned.
East 7th St. transition to South I-405 open.East 7th St. transition to North I-405/North I-605 remains closed until further notice.
— Caltrans District 12 (@Caltrans12) March 16, 2013
On Friday afternoon, the West County Connectors Project also tweeted the following photo of crews working to remove the 103-ton object from the bridge:
UPDATED FRIDAY 11:55AM | West County Connectors project sent an update stating that efforts are underway to remove the fallen equipment from the 7th Street/eastbound SR-22 bridge to the northbound I-405 freeway and that crews are also trying to install temporary supports to the damaged to bridge in the hopes of re-opening access from 7th Street to the southbound I-405 freeway.
The notice also stated that the equipment weighs 103 tons and not 217 tons as previously reported.
7th St. will be closed at Studebaker Rd. for at least 24 hours according to the Long Beach Police Department, however CalTrans says they have no estimated time for when the damaged connector will reopen.
ORIGINAL FRIDAY 9:30AM | Following the fall of a 103-ton piece of machinery off of a big rig early this morning, the connector from 7th St. to the 22 and 605 freeways has been shutdown at Studebaker. The closure is expected to last for at least 24 hours.
The incident caused damage to the road, guardrail and bridge that connects 7th St./22 eastbound commuters to the 605 and has also shutdown the eastbound onramp to the 22 from Studebaker Road.
According to a West County Connections (WCC) alert, “CalTrans bridge engineers are assessing and evaluating the situation and damage to the bridge.” The machinery fall was not related to the WCC project.
All eastbound traffic on 7th Street will be diverted to Studebaker until further notice, but the Long Beach Police Department estimates the closure to last at least 24 hours.
In addition to this emergency closure, LBPD and the WCC project sent out a notice on Tuesday saying that the same connector–22E to 605N–was scheduled to be closed on weekdays from 9AM to 2PM for two weeks.
View WCC Nightly Closures: Monday, March 11 – Friday, March 15, 2013 in a larger map