A new project to make westbound Interstate 8 safer for drivers began over the weekend, Caltrans officials announced.
Caltrans closed down the two far left lanes of westbound I-8 between Hotel Circle and Taylor Street from midnight to 8 a.m. Saturday to apply a unique directional safety feature to the two freeway lanes.
The safety features consist of two 8-foot by 20-foot I-8 shield logos with the word “WEST” in each lane to give motorists advance notice of the lane splits at the I-8 and Interstate 5 interchange, Caltrans officials said.
The new project is designed to reduce dangerous, last-minute changes right at that busy split on the roadway.
Crews closed the freeway to melt the plastic logos onto the pavement.
According to Hayden Manning of Caltrans, San Diego is a pioneer city for this type of new safety project.
“This is the first time it's been done in California. So we are going to study this and see if can be done in other areas, so you may see this in other freeways throughout the county,” Manning told NBC 7.
The second part of the project is set to take place Nov. 4 from midnight to 9 a.m.
For that phase, crews will close down the two far right lanes of I-8 to melt logos with the word “SOUTH” in the furthest right lane and “NORTH” in the adjacent lane, Caltrans said.
Once completed, a total of eight new shield logos will be embedded into the pavement.
