Hundreds of truckers and motorists returning from the New Year's holiday found themselves stuck after the Grapevine section of I-5 was closed at about 12:30 p.m. Sunday in 4,160-foot-high Tejon Pass, the major route between Southern and Central California.
Highway workers toiled through the night to plow about 35 miles of road, and CHP units began escorting vehicles in groups of about 500 around midday Monday, said Officer Patrick Etchebarne.
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Earlier blizzard conditions had eased to light snow flurries and then only cloudy skies.
The pass closes a couple of times each winter, and last year about 1,000 cars were stranded at one time, Etchebarne said. This time, CHP officers decided to close the roadway early, and fewer vehicles were trapped.
An alternate coastal route, U.S. 101, was open but many motorists already were battling blizzard conditions in the middle of Tejon Pass when it was shut down Sunday afternoon.
"It took us two hours to go five miles," said Charlie Crandall, a 55-year-old turkey farmer who tried to return to the Merced area after visiting relatives in San Diego.
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2011/01/03/state/n124300S53.DTL#ixzz1A0tRaViE
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