Starting Friday night, Caltrans is closing southbound Interstate 680 in Pleasanton between the 580/680 connector and Highway 84.
The closure will last from 9 p.m. Friday until 4 a.m. Monday. Caltrans said closing the stretch of the freeway for a weekend will make this repair work happen faster.
But some businesses are concerned about the closure especially because it’s happening during the St. Patrick’s Day weekend.
“It’s a big revenue weekend for a lot of bars and restaurants and a lot of people who are in this area are going to be hurt by it,” said Savren Thompson, owner of Bosco’s Bones & Brew in Sunol.
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Thompson said she took over the business a few months ago and this weekend was also supposed to be their grand opening party. They are even cutting back on their staff because they may have trouble getting to work.
“We hired a bunch of bands, naturally because of the closure. It’s definitely really going to hurt our business, so we’re moving it to another weekend.,” she said.
Caltrans said this closure is to replace a portion of the deteriorated roadway with new pavement and closing for a weekend will accomplish the amount of work that about 40 nighttime closures would.
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But commuters like Paul Bartholow of Pleasanton prefer the nighttime closures.
“I prefer if it were just night work. if they said 'at 10 p.m. at night, like it’s going to be closed until 4 a.m.' That makes significantly more sense,” he said.
Caltrans has put up maps of detours on it’s website depending on the direction you are coming from.
“If you’re coming from Concord or points further north, what you can do State Route 4, westbound, get 80 and then, 880 to get back on southbound 680,” said Caltrans spokesperson Janis Mara.
In the meantime, businesses are bracing for the kind of impact this could have.
“It’s gonna hurt a lot of people, a lot of businesses even in Pleasanton, and around the Tri Valley area,” Thompson said.
At the same time as the planned closure, the city of Dublin is getting the tents and carnival rides ready to celebrate a very special St. Patrick’s Day weekend.
“It takes a lot of work, a lot of work to plan a two-day festival but it’s all hands on deck. We hope that people enjoy every minute of it,” said Shari Jackman, Communications Manager of the city of Dublin.
Dublin city officials said planning for this year's celebration included planning around the planned I- 680 closure.
Planners said they're confident it won’t affect the estimated 80-thousand expected visitors.
“There may be some impact obviously with those closures, the freeways may be impacted. However, all access roads to Dublin will be open on 580 and 680. So, it shouldn't be any trouble getting into Dublin, once they reach our city,” Jackman said.
