SAN DIEGO (NEWS 8) - Caltrans is hoping to improve safety at Chicano Park by installing a debris barrier along a freeway ramp leading to the Coronado Bridge.
The connector ramp linking northbound Interstate 5 to the Coronado Bridge will be closed overnights for four consecutive nights, beginning Monday night, to allow for the installation of a debris fence above Chicano Park, according to Caltrans.
The closures will go from 8 p.m. until 5 the following morning. Posted detour signs will direct motorists to exit northbound I-5 at Cesar Chavez Parkway and then enter state Route 75 to the Coronado Bridge at Logan Avenue.
For nearly four decades, Chicano Park has been at the heart of Barrio Logan: A gathering place for the community that was forever changed in October 2016, when an out-of-control speeding drunk driver behind the wheel of a pick-up flew off the Coronado Bridge above and landed into the midst of a celebration taking place in the park below - killing four.
Along with the shock and sadness, renewed calls for change emerged in the wake of the tragedy.
In the past year, Caltrans has been making moves on the bridge to improve park safety by installing digital speed feedback signs and Chevron signs to get drivers to slow down.
Caltrans urges motorists in the area to slow down and "be work zone alert" by avoiding distracted driving and paying constant attention to traffic.