I-10 collapse reverberates to California, Arizona - Today's News-Herald
Primmer, one of 200 residents of Desert Center, will be among those most affected by the shutdown of rain-battered Interstate 10. But the closure will also affect cities like Phoenix and Los Angeles, which are directly linked by the busy artery... "I don't have any other choice," Primmer said Monday, a day after the eastbound side of the freeway washed out. the desert can't soak it up. ". Diana Valenzuela, a clerk at the Desert Center Post Office, said her usual trip to the grocery store on I-10 to Indio "normally takes 45 minutes — it will now take 3 hours. Late Monday, the California Department of Transportation concluded that the still-intact but compromised westbound span about 50 miles west of the Arizona state line could have a limited reopening within weeks. That crumbled stretch of highway easily withstood its daily load of thousands of cars and trucks, but it failed when the pounding of a powerful flash flood scoured away land where the bridge was anchored, officials said. Water rushing through a normally dry desert gully eroded the land around the bridge, causing one side of the eastbound span to collapse and forcing the closure of the westbound span. Source: www.havasunews.com
