CHULA VISTA (CNS) - South Bay commuters, take heed -- a major stretch of freeway in your community will be out of commission Sunday and tomorrow morning.
To allow for long-planned improvements to traffic circulation in the area, Caltrans will close Interstate 805 between State Routes 54 and 905 for about 14 hours, starting at 3 p.m. this afternoon, according to the state agency.
The shutdown will allow crews to demolish the East Palomar Street Bridge to make way for a new "direct-access ramp" designed to allow drivers to easily merge into express lanes under construction along the north-south route.
Also, the so-called "DAR" connector eventually will provide convenient access to a planned transit station in the area, officials said.
During the closure -- dubbed "DARmageddon," a variation on "Carmageddon," a tongue-in-cheek nickname for two large-scale closures of I-405 in Los Angeles -- motorists will be diverted to the east to SR-125, a toll road that will be temporarily free of charge during the construction period.
The work is necessary because I-805 is "the only major freeway in the county that doesn't have an alternative mass-transit option," according to project manager Ramon Martinez.
"There is no trolley," he said. "There is no carpool. So this project is going to address that need."