Whitewater rest area reopens day after Coachella weekend traffic deluge
It’s a tale as old as time* (*read: 2014, at least). The Whitewater rest area closes, reopens, closes, reopens, and remains the region’s single most snakebitten pit stop on local roads, if not along the whole of the I-10, seemingly.
Just last night just shy of 10 p.m., the rest area shut down due to electrical issues. This morning, it reopened at around 10 a.m. The closure came at the end of one of the tougher traffic days the rest area will see all year; the first day after weekend 1 of the Coachella Music & Arts Festival.
KESQ & CBS Local 2 reached out to CalTrans about the increase in activity that the rest area sees during the festival weekends, and whether they would provide additional staff at the rest area to adjust.
“The rest areas are staffed with cleaning crews and we are monitoring them continuously through our Landscape workers,” said Terri Kasinga, Chief of Public and Media Affairs for CalTrans District 8.
Before last night, Whitewater’s last closure came in late February due to “water leak issues.”
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Noticias en español: Telemundo 15
