CHP to continue testing electronic closure of roads in Meyers

The California Highway Patrol (CHP) electronic closure testing on two roads in the Meyers area this weekend is working but a glitch in the system will continue to direct visitors in the area through neighborhoods as they make their way west towards Sacramento and the Bay Area.

On Thursday, CHP placed electronic closures on both Sawmill Road and North Upper Truckee in an effort to keep motorists heading for US50 over Echo Summit out of neighborhood roads as they search for a way around the bottleneck traffic seen each Sunday and holiday weekend.

CHP has been testing different ways to place an electronic closure on roads, thus keeping that route off Google Maps, Waze and Mapquest.

Residents are hopeful something can be done as many are unable to get home for hours as vehicles clog surface streets as they make their exodus from South Lake Tahoe. Will those cars stopped on roads for hours at a time, many use front yards and a school bus stop as their restrooms as frustration and anger escalates.

According to CHP Lt. Terry Lowther they were able to upload closures into the system and found them to work on State Routes to divert travel with using directional apps.

"The current issue is that when closures are uploaded to County roads, the directional APPS are not diverting the routes," said Lt. Lowther.

He said residents should expect heavy traffic on the side streets Sunday and Monday because of this glitch. There is still a lot of snow on all roads, especially those in the side neighborhoods, which could cause issues for unprepared drivers.

"We will need to work with CalTrans Traffic Management to figure out how to have Waze/Google recognize the Non-State Route restrictions," Lowther added.