Riverside Span to be Torn Down, Impacting Traffic

Demolition work will begin today on a heavily used bridge where traffic exits and joins the Riverside 91 Freeway in Riverside, marking the start of a months-long reconstruction that’s expected to cause travel delays at the juncture.

According to Caltrans, the 14th Street overcrossing will be torn down over the next three days. The site is one of two major entrance points to downtown Riverside, the other being University Avenue.

Crews will be demolishing the bridge and erecting a new one as part of the six-mile-long 91 Freeway High-Occupancy-Vehicle Project that entails adding an additional traffic lane on the route between Corona and Riverside.

Beginning at 9 p.m., access to the 14th Street bridge will be shut down and not available again until 8 a.m. Saturday, after which travel will be limited to one lane each going north and south. Currently, the span has six lanes.

Traffic on the 91 will also be reduced to one lane on the eastbound and westbound sides for bridge demolition tonight.

According to Caltrans, two-lane travel across the 14th Street bridge will last until late 2014, when the $232 million HOV project is expected to be completed.