After nearly three hours of messy, snarled traffic due to police activity Wednesday, officials reopened northbound Interstate 5 near at Interstate 8.
Caltrans announced the all lanes of the busy freeway at the junction were reopened to traffic just before 1 p.m.
The ordeal started about three hours earlier when California Highway Patrol responded to the area. At 10:30 a.m., all northbound lanes were shut down and a Sig Alert was issued.
Soon, a traffic nightmare unfolded.
#CHP turning parked drivers around on I-5 to exit on Old Town Ave. #NBC7 https://t.co/nSKOHL2fci pic.twitter.com/Ai93qoLlYS
— Omari Fleming (@OmariNBCSD) July 3, 2019
Traffic was being diverted to Pacific Highway. Drivers were experiencing 20-minute delays and traffic was backed up to Sassafrass Street, Caltrans said.
A short time later, traffic was backed up to Pershing Drive and the off-ramp to Washington Street was also shut down. At that point, motorists were experiencing delays up to an hour.
NBC 7 reporter Omari Flemming said that CHP was turning traffic around on the freeway to exit on Old Town Avenue.
Local
Metropolitan Transit System (MTS) service was also affected. Eastbound trains were ending service at the Old Town Station while westbound trains were ending service at Washington Street. Passengers would be bussed between the two stops instead.
No other information was available.
