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10 Freeway to reopen in 3-5 weeks; won't need demolition
The Supreme Court has adopted a conduct code, but who will enforce it?
By City News Service
By Joshua Kaplan, Justin Elliott, Brett Murphy and Alex Mierjeski, ProPublica
T
he fire-damaged section of the Santa Monica (10) Freeway in downtown Los Angeles will reopen in three to five weeks, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Tuesday, saying additional testing on concrete and rebar showed betterthan-anticipated structural integrity of the freeway deck. "This will not be a demolition, we will not need to demolish and replace the I-10," Newsom said during a Tuesday morning news conference. Instead, crews will work around the clock to continue shoring up and repairing the freeway deck and the roughly 100 support columns affected by the fire that erupted early Saturday morning and forced the closure of a roadway that handles 300,000 vehicles per day. Newsom said he expects the work to be completed and at least part of the freeway reopened earlier than five weeks. "I do not want to see that five-week mark hit," he said. "I want to see something much faster." He noted that if the freeway would have needed to be demolished, the closure would have lasted "many, many months," perhaps as long as six months. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass hailed the announcement, but warned that a three- to five-week freeway closure is still a major ordeal in car-reliant Los Angeles. "Angelenos, it's good news," Bass proclaimed as she stood alongside Newsom. "The freeway will not have
This story was originally published by ProPublica. ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. Sign up for The Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox.
Monday, and they're looking into the trend to see if there's any action they can take to address that situation. They also mentioned that the rain in the forecast for Wednesday would likely make any traffic problems even worse. The investigation into the fire was continuing, and there was no immediate information on a possible arson suspect or suspects. Newsom said at a Monday afternoon news conference that the fire was set within the fenceline of the storage business operating below the freeway, which was littered with vehicles, pallets and other materials. Newsom said Cal Fire investigators who completed their initial probe Sunday night determined "that it was arson, and that it was done and set intentionally. The determination of who was responsible is an investigation that is ongoing."
Series: Friends of the Court: SCOTUS Justices’ Beneficial Relationships With Billionaire Donors upreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’ decadeslong friendship with real estate tycoon Harlan Crow and Samuel Alito’s luxury travel with billionaire Paul Singer have raised questions about influence and ethics at the nation's highest court. The Supreme Court on Monday released a code of conduct governing the behavior of the country’s most powerful judges for the first time in its history. But experts said it was unclear if the new rules, which do not include any enforcement mechanism, would address the issues raised by recent revelations about justices’ ethics and conduct. The nine-page code, with an accompanying five pages of commentary, was signed by all the sitting justices and covers everything from the acceptance of gifts, to recusal standards, to avoiding improper outside influence on the justices. The step followed months of reporting by ProPublica detailing undisclosed gifts to Supreme Court justices from wealthy political donors. The code does not specify who, if anyone, could determine whether the rules had been violated. The new Supreme Court code’s lack of any apparent enforcement process is “the elephant in the room,” said Stephen Vladeck, a law professor at the University of Texas who studies the court. “Even the most stringent and aggressive ethics rules don’t mean all that much if there’s no mechanism for enforcing them. And the justices’ unwillingness to even nod toward that difficulty kicks the ball squarely back into Congress’ court.” Nevertheless, some leading observers of the court described the creation of an explicit, written code as a landmark in the court’s 234-year history. “The Supreme Court’s promulgation of a code of conduct today is of surpassing historic significance,” former federal appellate judge J. Michael Luttig told ProPublica. “The court must lead by the example that only it can set for the federal judiciary, as it does today.” A statement released by the court on Monday accompanying the code said it was formulated to dispel “the misunderstanding that the Justices of this Court, unlike all other jurists in this country, regard themselves as unrestricted by any ethics rules.” It said the code “largely represents a codification of principles that we have long regarded as governing our conduct.” A series of ProPublica stories this year detailed a pattern
See 10 Freeway Page 27
See Supreme Court Page 16
S Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass tour the fire damaged portion of the 10 Freeway. | Photo courtesy of Mayor of LA / X
to come down, so instead of months, we are talking about weeks. ... But it's still threeto-five weeks in Los Angeles for this freeway not to be in operation." Bass urged commuters to continue taking steps to lessen the impact on area streets and freeways, saying people should continue to work from home as much as possible and take advantage of something she said the city didn't have at its disposal following the 1994 Northridge earthquake that damaged multiple freeways -- public transit. She said if residents follow the advice to telecommute and use public transit, "there's no reason for this to be the disaster it could be." Tuesday marked the second workday commuters were forced to deal with the freeway closure, which was sparked by a pallet fire in a storage yard beneath the roadway -- a fire that Newsom
and state officials said was deliberately set. Local transportation officials said the city made it through Monday's start to the work week in pretty good shape. "What we saw was both encouraging, but a reminder of the significant challenges we face," Laura Rubio-Cornejo, general manager of the Los Angeles Department of Transportation, said Tuesday morning. Rubio-Cornejo said Monday's commute did not result in gridlocked streets, but downtown surface streets did see a 14.7% increase in traffic volume throughout the day. To encourage residents to get out of their cars, LADOT officials said Tuesday they're temporarily eliminating fares on DASH and Commuter Express bus lines. Officials said congestion was worse in the afternoon than in the morning on