Freeway

The Inland Empire's version of "Carmageddon" begins Friday night when Caltrans shuts down sections of northbound Interstate 215 in San Bernardino as part of an ongoing $723-million freeway-widening project. The "Big Shift," as transportation officials are calling it, is necessary to reconfigure traffic lanes during construction. The closure begins at 11 p.m. Friday and is scheduled to end at 6 a.m. Monday. It will occur in stages between 2nd Street and Highland Avenue. The southbound lanes will be open.

Friends and strangers came together this week to help the family of Leiana Ramirez, the 2-year-old who died last Friday in a fiery crash on the 110 Freeway near Highland Park. The little girl was riding southbound with her mother, Samika Ramirez, just north of York Boulevard, when an SUV plowed into their Nissan Altima, causing it to burst into flames. Neighbors, who have witnessed countless accidents along that curvy stretch of the roadway, raced to the scene and tried to help Ramirez rescue her daughter with buckets of water, garden hoses and fire extinguishers.

The southbound lanes of the 5 Freeway in Norwalk have been reopened, hours after a fatal motorcycle accident snarled the Thursday morning commute. The lanes had been closed between Pioneer Boulevard and the 605 Freeway, and traffic had been diverted to the 605. The northbound lanes were reopened earlier. A preliminary investigation found that several motorcyclists were traveling north on the freeway at Pioneer around 4:25 a.m. when one of the bikers flew over the median onto the southbound lanes, said California Highway Patrol Officer Krystal Carter.

If you're freaked out about the planned mid-July closure of the 405 freeway , relax. That's the word from Fairmont Miramar Hotel & Bungalows in Santa Monica, which suggests skipping the traffic meltdown and instead chilling out in an ocean-view room starting at $405 a night. OK, it's not cheap, but it's less than the usual room rate and it comes with free parking too. The deal: Whether or not you believe the doomsday traffic predictions for the July 16-17 freeway construction shutdown, there's something tempting about sitting it out at this 300-room resort within walking distance of the ocean, the Santa Monica Pier and the Third Street Promenade.

Even though their selfish neighbors and the overbearing state are aligned against them, South Pasadenans should not take their freeway fight laying down. I am not ashamed to defend their inalienable right to not have a freeway through their city. Their answer is to litigate, not mitigate. ERIC EHRMAN Alhambra

A motorcyclist was killed on the transition from the northbound 110 Freeway to the eastbound 91 Freeway about 6 a.m. Friday, authorities said. The man, who was in his 30s, died at the scene of the accident, California Highway Patrol Officer Anthony Martin said. The transition lanes were temporarily closed while an investigation was conducted.

All southbound lanes of Interstate 5 were reopened in Gorman after a six-vehicle crash early Tuesday killed two people, including an 11-year-old girl, and injured six others. Traffic was snarled for miles after the crash, which was reported just after 5 a.m. north of California 138, California Highway Patrol said. Officer Adriaan Garcia said investigators were still trying to piece together what caused the crash but said the vehicles included a semi-truck and an SUV that rolled and threw two people from it. A 42-year-old woman and an 11-year-old girl were pronounced dead at the scene, Garcia said.

The Pasadena City Council slammed new freeway proposals for the San Gabriel Valley as a crowd of more than 550 cheered members on at a special meeting with regional transportation officials. Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials are weighing 12 alternatives to ease congestion near the end of the 710 Freeway in Alhambra. The options range from transit improvements to the hotly contested 4.5-mile extension of the 710 to the 210 Freeway in Pasadena. Three recently unveiled alternatives drew fire Monday night: A tunnel under Avenue 64 that would connect the 710 to the 134 Freeway, a highway replacing Avenue 64 and a highway that would start at the 710 and run through Huntington Drive and Fair Oaks Avenue to the 210 in Pasadena.

All eastbound lanes of the 210 Freeway are open but two westbound lanes will remain closed in Monrovia through at least 3 p.m Monday after a big rig carrying grapes crashed, the California Highway Patrol said. The detour meant frustration for commuters, who for most of the morning had to deal with three blocked lanes in both directions from the 5 a.m. crash. The rig was carrying 35,000 pounds of grapes when it overturned at the center divider near Myrtle Avenue. The eastbound lanes were reopened about 11 a.m. There were no reported injuries from the crash.

A CHP official released some details Wednesday of the officer-involved shooting on the 91 Freeway in Corona that left a motorist, who was said to be armed, dead and traffic backed up for miles. The incident began with a call to CHP dispatchers at 7:47 p.m. Tuesday of a traffic collision on the eastbound 91 west of Interstate 15, said CHP Officer Mario Lopez. Corona firefighters arrived to find a man outside his car on the shoulder of the freeway armed with a gun, he said. Corona police and CHP officers arrived, and a short while later, the man was shot and killed, Lopez said.