What would be your area's "Carmageddon"?

[thenetwork]

Detroit's only real Carmageddon would be the Ambassador Bridge into Canada.  I say that because Detroit is known for regularly closing entire stretches of freeways at a time. If something were to happen to the Moron, er Moroun bridge, before the new crossing is complete, most trucks would have to ride I-94 to Port Huron for crossing into Canada as the Detroit/Windsor Tunnel prohibits most, if not all trucks. 

Meanwhile the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel and moreso the related surface streets on the Windsor side would be gridlocked by cars. 

At least the Blue Water is twinned now, so the carmageddon factor has been eased in the last couple of decades.

[agentsteel53]

I don't think it is possible for Detroit to have a carmageddon.  If you shut down every downtown freeway, all four remaining residents would shrug and go back to sleep in their shopping carts.

[RustyK]

Seattle would probably be an extended closure of I-5 through downtown, or the closure of either the I-90 or SR520 bridges during a rush hour.  520 has been closed at times for full weekends (including recently), and 90 sees a full shutdown for the Seafair weekend, and it don't typically result in carmageddon.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

The Mackinac Bridge, enough said. Detours would involve going through either Chicago or Canada.

I was thinking about that one too, although I wonder if/when the bridge does have to be shut down if there will be a temporary ferry service provided or something. There is no way that anyone can be reasonably expected to make a detour of that magnitude.

[Zmapper]

The more I think about it, the North Front Range/Southern Wyoming Carmageddon would be the closure of I-80 between Laramie and Cheyenne. The traffic had to be detoured all the way down to Fort Collins because there are no alternative routes nearby.

[NJRoadfan]

NJ's already happened in the summer of 2001 when a tanker truck fire melted a culvert carrying I-80 westbound over a local stream in Denville. Took them a few days to get a temporary Bailey Bridge up and the highway was snarled in traffic all summer due to 4 lanes having to cram into 2. The worst case scenario for the state however would be if the Pulaski Skyway collapsed onto the NJ Turnpike and took out both spurs. traffic would sit for days, and the alternate/detour routes simply can't handle the volume or are completely out of the way.

[golden eagle]

Worth $4 to get molested by [the] TSA?

Not to me, but CNN reports that the flights sold out very quickly.

Given the price of gas, that's a steal!

[golden eagle]

Atlanta had a bit of a Carmageddon ten years ago when a tanker truck on Georgia 400 crashed and burned the I-285 bridge above it. Thankfully, it happened late Friday night/early Saturday morning. However, there was still a gridlock on 285. Some people tried to take advantage by selling (gouging) motorists for bottles of water and sodas.

[haljackey]

Highway 401- Toronto.

[agentsteel53]

Highway 401- Toronto.
[401 with one single car on it]

was that because of that plane crash, or something else?

[allniter89]

I don't think it is possible for Detroit to have a carmageddon.  If you shut down every downtown freeway, all four remaining residents would shrug and go back to sleep in their shopping carts.

rotflmao!!! That was good!

[shadyjay]

In CT it would be I-95, but we already had a similiar issue and things were pretty much ok.  I-95 was shut down in Bridgeport about 7 years ago due to an accident.  They had to replace a bridge and the highway was closed for a couple days.  There was so much warning, traffic wasn't as bad as predicted.

When I was working down that way, they sent us around via I-84 and Route 7 to get from the greater Hartford area to SW CT.  We were expecting much worse.

The present situation in CT is the Arrigoni Bridge project which has that bridge down to 1 lane each way.  However, so far so good, though the project just started and will last until Fall '12.

But a disasterous issue would be something happening at the I-84/I-91 interchange in Hartford, or at the I-95/I-91 interchange in New Haven, both carry a ton of traffic and a problem at one interchange would affect 2 major interstate routes.

[mgk920]

Another for NE Wisconsin, SB US 41 going down (ie, if there would be a multi-vehicle pileup) south of Ashland Ave in the De Pere area after a Green Bay Packer home game.  It normally takes about three hours for post-game traffic to dissipate in that direction.

Mike

[corco]

The more I think about it, the North Front Range/Southern Wyoming Carmageddon would be the closure of I-80 between Laramie and Cheyenne. The traffic had to be detoured all the way down to Fort Collins because there are no alternative routes nearby.

That happens all the time though in the winter. No carmageddon, just minor annoyance- I've had to go Laramie-> Cheyenne via Wheatland before. For locals it's a non-issue.

[rickmastfan67]

Highway 401- Toronto.
[401 with one single car on it]

was that because of that plane crash, or something else?

It was something else Jake.  That's nowhere near the Airport.

Quote from Wikipedia (which has the same picture):

On August 10, 2008, following a series of explosions at a propane facility in Toronto, Highway 401 was closed between Highway 400 and Highway 404 as a precautionary measure, the largest closure of the highway in its history.[117] The highway remained closed until 8 p.m., though several exits near the blast remained closed thereafter.[118][119]

[hobsini2]

I would have to concur with Brandon about I-80 in Joliet at the present time.  The construction zone officially is from the Will/Grundy Co Line to US 45.  However, from Larkin to Richards, I-80 is down to 1 lane each way over the Des Plaines.  This construction coinciding with the US 30 work zone and any barge traffic raising the draw bridges in downtown Joliet make that area a nightmare.  Yesterday, when i was going to Detroit, and my friend was driving, for some reason we took I-80 from I-55 and headed east. It took about 30 minutes to get from Larkin to US 30.

[Kacie Jane]

Seattle would probably be an extended closure of I-5 through downtown, or the closure of either the I-90 or SR520 bridges during a rush hour.  520 has been closed at times for full weekends (including recently), and 90 sees a full shutdown for the Seafair weekend, and it don't typically result in carmageddon.

That sort of happened a couple of years ago, when they closed all but 1-2 lanes of northbound I-5 at a time south of downtown for repaving.  The local media treated it similarly to Carmageddon, and King County Metro (public transit) rerouted all of their buses to SR 99, but if I recall correctly, people heeded the warnings and it turned out similar to this I-405 thing.  Extra delays at times, but nothing terribly disastrous or deserving of a clever moniker.

[Interstate Trav]

As many of your highway geeks, er, enthusiasts know, a ten-mile stretch of Los Angeles' 405 freeway is scheduled to be shut down this coming weekend. We all know how legendary traffic is there. Even with advance warning, who knows how the traffic will really be. Anyhow, what would be areas of your city if a major shutdown were to happen? For Jackson, it would be shutting down the Stack interchange (I-20/I-55/US49). Jackson is not that big, but we saw what could happen last winter when a stretch of the Stack was shut down due to icing on the bridges. It took some people as much as five hours to get through it. At the same time, a number of other bridges, particularly at I-55/I-220 in north Jackson, were shut down too, causing northbound traffic to divert primarily unto State Street (the old US 51). I live right off State Street and I've never seen that many cars on the road. Fortunately, I was going to opposite direction.

I was in San Diego in 2003 when a construction crane accidentally toppled a power line near the I-5/805 interchange, causing the biggest traffic tie-up in the city's history. Thankfully, I didn't own a car or have any reason being in the area.

I live in a small town 2 hours east of the 405, but if the main highway the CA 62 was shut down, that would cause problems, as it's the only way in or out.

For Las Vegas I would guess if I-15 was shut down.