Road Condition Alert: CHP Opens Interstate 5 over the Grapevine

  • Vehicles headed out of Pine Mountain were stuck on Mil Potrero Highway. Numerous drivers stopped in the middle of the highway to install chains. [photo by The Mountain Enterprise]

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    Vehicles headed out of Pine Mountain were stuck on Mil Potrero Highway. Numerous drivers stopped in the middle of the highway to install chains. [photo by The Mountain Enterprise]

  • A telephone pole across east and west lanes of Highway 138 stops traffic in both directions while CHP and motorists wait for Southern California Edison to arrive. [photo by The Mountain Enterprise]

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    A telephone pole across east and west lanes of Highway 138 stops traffic in both directions while CHP and motorists wait for Southern California Edison to arrive. [photo by The Mountain Enterprise]

UPDATE — FRAZIER PARK, CA (Monday, Jan. 3, 2011 at 12:09 p.m.)–California Highway Patrol (CHP) has opened Interstate 5 over the Grapevine in both north and south directions.

UPDATE — FRAZIER PARK, CA (Monday, Jan. 3, 2011 at 11:27 a.m.)–California Highway Patrol (CHP) has begun escorting traffic over the Grapevine.

UPDATE — FRAZIER PARK, CA (Sunday, Jan. 2, 2011 at 3:50 p.m.)–Highway 138 east and west lanes were blocked just east of Quail Lake due to a telephone pole across the roadway after a traffic collision before 2 p.m. Southern California Edison was enroute with no estimate availabe for opening of the road.

UPDATE — FRAZIER PARK, CA (Sunday, Jan. 2, 2011 at 12:45 p.m.)–California Highway Patrol (CHP) has closed the Grapevine in both directions due to snow and gusty winds until further notice.

UPDATE — FRAZIER PARK, CA (Sunday, Jan. 2, 2011 at 12:10 p.m.)–California Highway Patrol (CHP) has reported that traffic is being escorted over the Grapevine due to snowy conditions.

FRAZIER PARK, CA (Sunday, Jan. 2, 2011 at 11:55 a.m.)–California Highway Patrol (CHP) has begun closing roads to non-residents and those vehicles without snow chains.

Road checkpoints have been set up on Frazier Mountain Park Road in Lebec and at Lockwood Valley Road to ensure that drivers have properly equipped vehicles. Residents are being allowed through checkpoints as well as vehicles which have chains or four-wheel-drive with snow tires.

Vehicles leaving Pine Mountain this morning were backed up along Milpotrero Highway just a mile west of the "Y" waiting for other motorists to install chains while stuck in the middle of the highway.

Kern County Sheriff’s radio traffic indicated that a vehicle had gone over the side on Cuddy Valley Road and that vehicles were sliding off Frazier Mountain Park Road in Frazier Park.

CHP has closed the road to Mt. Pinos and Nordic Base has been closed.

Snow has begun falling on Interstate 5 through the Grapevine.

 

This is part of the December 31, 2010 online edition of The Mountain Enterprise.

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