• The coyote that made it onto Alcatraz Island earlier this month appears to be thriving there, as rangers reported seeing carcasses from prey that it caught. Authorities were worried about the safety of the visitors the coyote was attracting due to the media attention, but local expert Janet Kessler said the coyote is used to humans, as it was born and raised in SF. [Coyote Yips/Instagram]

• A cute, new mascot called “Maverick,” who’s a descendant of Ma Sheng, the Horse God, has been unveiled for the 2026 Chinese New Year Parade in celebration of the rare Year of the Fire Horse, which only comes around every 60 years. [KGO]

• The ongoing swarm of earthquakes near San Ramon, which have been striking in clusters for over a month, hit the region again Friday with a 3.4M quake, followed by a 2.9. [KPIX]
• The National Football League reportedly told San Jose officials, including Mayor Matt Mahan, that ICE agents will not be targeting Super Bowl events, but leaders are remaining vigilant in case of a surge. [NBC Bay Area]

• San Mateo County authorities are investigating the death of a 31-year-old woman who was found inside a detached garage that was on fire early Friday morning in Fair Oaks and was pronounced dead at the scene. [KRON4]
• Check out this aerial view showing the massive turnout at Friday's walkout and anti-ICE rally at SF's Dolores Park, with more protests to come over the weekend.

Image: Leanne Maxwell/SFist

A section of winding Highway 116 slid into the Russian River in Sonoma County on Monday, and the washout near Monte Rio is only expected to grow as the rain-soaked banks of the river continue to be saturated and unstable.

The washout began around 4 pm Monday, with a 75- to 100-foot section of the eastern lane of Highway 116 collapsing and taking trees and a piece of guardrail with it, just west of Monte Rio — about five miles past Guerneville if you were heading to the coast. As the Press Democrat reports, the earth beneath the roadway was "likely loosened by the surging waterway and runoff from the recent storms," with the Russian River cresting Tuesday at just two feet below flood stage — a 30-foot rise since New Year's Eve.

A photo posted by Caltrans early Tuesday showed the roadway still mostly intact up to the white line at the egde of the eastbound lane, but subsequent photos published by the Press Democrat showed the washout growing and encroaching on more of the lane. One-way traffic is proceeding through the area in the westbound lane.

As the Press Democrat reports, Caltrans is estimating that repair work could take up to a year after it begins, and those who use Highway 116 between Guerneville and the coast can expect one-way-only traffic in this area for a long time to come.

Sonoma County Supervisor Lynda Hopkins expressed concern about the situation, because Highway 116 is "a primary evacuation route and commuting road" for the communities nearby. "If it isn’t repaired before summer, it’s going to cause huge headaches for residents, local businesses and visitors," Hopkins tells the Press Democrat.

Caltrans is on site monitoring the situation, but Caltrans spokesperson Jeff Weiss tells the paper, "We’re doing our best to keep the road in place, but there’s very little we can do right now, except for put it under one-way traffic control and keep people on the westbound lane."

Sonoma County is under a flood watch until 7 pm Wednesday, due to surging creeks and rivers following the last two weeks of rain.

"The river just erodes things. You can’t stop this wonderful force of nature," says Cazadero resident Karen Harris, speaking to the Press Democrat. She notes that every year some section of road in the area tends to disappear.

As the news outlet notes, Caltrans just completed a repair over the summer of 2025 of a section of road in Guerneville’s Montesano neighborhood that was damaged in a landslide in December 2024.

Last February, a portion of Westside Road in Forestville was compromised following a landslide that took an entire home with it.

Cue more complaints about the Great Highway being closed! A project to repave 19th Avenue means that a major north-west route through the city — and part of Highway 1 — will see lane closures lasting a full year.

The northbound lanes of 19th Avenue between Sloat Boulevard and Lincoln Way are going to start being repaved as of Monday, December 1. And this means for the second time in five years, this section of Highway 1 through San Francisco will see some increased traffic due to lane closures and roadwork.

As NBC Bay Area reports, the repaving work begins on the northbound side of this six-lane thoroughfare, at Sloat Boulevard, proceeding north up to Golden Gate Park. Caltrans crews will then move to the southbound lanes and work their way back toward Sloat by mid-2026.

A second phase of the project will see the segment of 19th Avenue between Sloat and Holloway Avenue repaved.

The 3.8-mile stretch of 19th Avenue will therefore have lanes closed on some section of it for a full year, through December 2026.

19th Avenue previously underwent a two-year construction project starting in 2020 that involved replacing water and sewer lines underneat the roadway.

Since the closure of the Great Highway, more motorists rely on 19th Avenue than before to travel north and south through the Sunset District — leading to drive times being slightly longer, according to a Chronicle study from June.

Caltrans is recommending that motorists use alternate route for the next year during rush hours, which are defined as 6 am to 10 and 3 pm to 7 pm on weekdays.

Repaving work will typically be active on 19th Avenue between 7 am and 3 pm on weekdays.

• Anthropic AI has agreed to pay $1.5 billion in a copyright settlement over a lawsuit alleging the company illegally pirated almost half a million books. The plaintiffs — a group of authors and publishers — will be awarded $3,000 for each publication listed in the case. [Associated Press]
• Thirty inmates were involved in a fight at Maguire Correctional Facility in San Mateo County Friday morning, and deputies reportedly used gas to break it up. Six officers had minor injuries, and six inmates were hospitalized, three of whom have since been sent back to jail and the others in stable condition. [KTVU]
• Caltrans is replacing a misspelled sign on southbound 101 in Novato/Petaluma. The sign, which should read “San Marin Drive” instead of the currently incorrect “San Martin Drive,” is scheduled to arrive in a couple weeks — at no extra cost to taxpayers. [KGO]

• Oakland-born world figure skating champion Alysa Liu told the Associated Press she’s replacing the d4vd song she’d planned to use for one of her programs in the Milan Olympics due to the artist’s potential involvement in the death of Celeste Rivas Hernandez. [Associated Press]

National:

• Elon Musk is listed in a newly released Epstein document, along with Steve Banon, Peter Thiel, and Prince Andrew. The file, released Friday by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee, contains portions of Epstein’s daily schedule from 2014, 2017 and 2019, as well as a flight manifest from 2000. [USA Today]
• Black Panther and Black Liberation activist Assata Shakur, who had been living in Cuba under political asylum for the past several decades, has died. Shakur was given a life sentence in 1977 in the killing of a New Jersey state trooper and was rescued by members of the Black Liberation Army during a jail break in 1979. [Associated Press]
• In a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission, Amazon agreed to pay its customers $1.5 billion in refunds — in addition to a $1 billion civil penalty — over its “deceptive Prime enrollment practices.” [CBS News]
• Sinclair Broadcasting and Nexstar Media Group, which boycotted the airing of Jimmy Kimmel Live! this week, announced Friday they’ll both be airing the show again on all 38 and 33 of their ABC affiliate stations effective immediately. [CBS News]

Video of the Day:

• This Bay Area couple had a wedding to remember with Vallejo’s own E-40 as their wedding officiant. Big congrats, to the Kinders!

Image: Leanne Maxwell/SFist

• New research from Stanford University has determined that wildfire smoke is the most detrimental consequence of climate change on Americans' health. Forty thousand Americans are killed by wildfire smoke per year, and the number is projected at 70,000 per year by 2050. [KQED]
• Santa Rosa police arrested Felix Carreon, 50, and Robert McConlogue, 46, both from Sebastopol, in connection with the fatal shooting of Mollie Schefer, 47, at her home in Santa Rosa September 9. One of Shefer’s dogs was also killed, and a second dog was suffering from a gunshot wound. [KRON4]

• A new addiction recovery facility called Wells Place will soon be opening in SF’s Marina District at the former Marina Inn location at Octavia and Lombard streets. Residents at the facility, which consists of double and single-occupancy rooms with a total of 60 beds, will be required to go to school or work while at the facility. [NBC Bay Area]

• The Cupertino Whole Foods, which was shut down in April due to multiple pest infestations, passed its inspection and is set to reopen its doors September 29. [KPIX]
• Three parks in the East Bay town of Antioch — Contra Loma Estates Park, Marchetti Park, and Jacobsen Park — are getting major upgrades, which were largely funded by a $2.95 million grant through Proposition 68. [Bay Area News Group]
• Juan Aguilar, 44, was sentenced to 18 years in prison on August 29 for the human trafficking, rape, and forcible oral copulation of a 15-year-old girl whom he kidnapped from Honduras and trafficked from his San Leandro home for two years. [Bay Area News Group]

Image: Leanne Maxwell/SFist

We’ve all seen large homeless encampments beneath freeway overpasses in SoMa and the Mission, and Mayor Lurie just got the green light from Caltrans to start clearing encampments at eight major overpasses and entrance ramps.

It seems that for decades, there have always been pretty sizable homeless encampments around the Route 101 overpass at Cesar Chavez Street. Ditto for the South Van Ness and 13th Street overpass for Route 101, not far from Rainbow Grocery. And the City of San Francisco has not cleared those encampments, because the areas under overpasses, and alongside on-ramps and off-ramps, are technically the property of the California Department of Transportation, better known as Caltrans.

But KGO reports that SF Mayor Daniel Lurie has just struck a deal with Caltrans allowing the city to clear encampments under overpasses. The arrangement was reportedly signed on Wednesday, and per KGO, city workers started clearing areas on Thursday morning.

"The first thing and the last thing people see are our on-ramps and off-ramps and I want those spaces to reflect the beauty of San Francisco,” Lurie told KGO. “And now we are going to be able to do that.”

The agreement singles out eight so-called hot spots for encampments, and those 101 overpasses at Cesar Chavez Street and 13th Street in SoMa that we mentioned are among them. There are four other 101 overpass hot spots identified for clearing, as well as a couple around or under I-80. The locations are detailed at the 1:17 mark of the KGO video above.

"If we are going to resolve an encampment, we do the public notifications and then we will go in several days later with a multi-agency team,” Public Works director Carla Short said to KGO. She added that Public Works employees would be “leading with services first and offering shelter and help and ultimately cleaning the area.”

We’ve of course heard these statements about encampment clearings when London Breed was in office, and it is arguable whether those efforts made a serious dent. As Tenderloin Housing Clinic executive director Randy Shaw told KGO in the same segment, "Before we claim some major victory, let's say this is a good start, and then let's see each other in three months and see if a difference has been made."

And recall how it went with the clearing of encampments on Caltrans-owned land during the long saga of the Wood Street encampment in West Oakland, which took about five years and was drawn out by a great deal of courtroom drama.

Related: Newsom Orders State Agencies to Clear Homeless Encampments En Masse in Wake of Supreme Court Ruling [SFist]

Image: SAN FRANCISCO - JANUARY 25: Homeless people set up camp under a freeway overpass January 25, 2010 in San Francisco, California. San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom announced ambitious plans during his recent State of the City address to reduce the city's overall homeless population by one third and the street population by one half before being termed out of office in two years. Over 6,500 homeless people live on the streets and in shelters in San Francisco. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

• A driver was killed Tuesday morning after crashing a speeding Toyota RAV4 into multiple parked Caltrans vehicles near the San Mateo Toll Bridge Plaza, prompting a CHP investigation and a three-hour shutdown of eastbound SR-92 lanes. Authorities say the SUV veered off the road into a Department of Transportation lot for reasons still under investigation. [KRON4]
• A Twin Peaks condo once home to disco legend Sylvester is on the market for $1.7 million. Neighbors remember the late icon as an unforgettable presence in the community. [SFGate]
• The embattled Antioch Police Department has sworn in Joe Vigil as its new permanent chief, marking a “new chapter” focused on accountability and reform following scandals involving officer misconduct, civil rights violations, and corruption. Vigil brings 25 years of law enforcement experience and aims to restore community trust after FBI investigations exposed widespread abuses within the department. [KRON4]
• Salesforce is acquiring cloud data management firm Informatica in an all-cash, $8 billion deal approved by both companies’ boards, aiming to enhance its AI and data capabilities across sectors like healthcare and finance, with the deal expected to close in early fiscal 2027. [NBC Bay Area]
• The Berkeley Flea Market, a 50-year-old institution at the Ashby BART station, may close by June 28 due to ongoing financial losses and declining vendor participation, according to flyers distributed by market staff. [NBC Bay Area]

National:

• The Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal from Apache Stronghold seeking to block a copper mine on Oak Flat, a sacred site in Arizona, effectively allowing the land transfer to Resolution Copper to proceed. Justices Gorsuch and Thomas dissented, calling the refusal a “grave mistake” that disregards the Apaches’ religious freedoms and the cultural significance of the land. [CBS News]
• NPR and three Colorado public radio stations have filed a federal lawsuit against the Trump administration, challenging an executive order that bars federal funding to NPR and PBS based on alleged bias, arguing it violates the First Amendment. The suit accuses the administration of retaliatory censorship and usurping Congress’s authority over funding decisions, threatening public media’s ability to provide independent news. [NPR]
• The U.S. State Department has temporarily paused scheduling new visa interviews for foreign students while expanding social media screening, a move that could delay enrollments and impact universities relying on international students. [Associated Press]

Video of the Day:

• Stunning footage by photographer Eric Thurber of some of the dancers who performed in last Sunday’s Carnaval parade:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Eric Thurber (@thurber_shots)

Image: Leanne Maxwell/SFist

Image: Leanne Maxwell/SFist

Highway 1 has reopened to regular traffic, thanks to a new signal system that will allow traffic to flow in one direction at a time past the area where a rockslide made part of the roadway disappear in late March.

You can now get into Big Sur again as a non-resident, without needing to join a twice-daily convoy. Caltrans announced the reopening of Highway 1 Friday, eight days ahead of schedule, and posted video of cars passing by the Rocky Creek Bridge where the "slipout" occurred on March 30.

That slipout, or rockslide at the cliff edge of the road, stranded around 1,600 people over Easter weekend, and Highway 1 was subsequently closed to traffic for six weeks — save for the morning and afternoon convoys that let residents in and out for supplies, etc.

"All systems are go!" Caltrans tweeted Friday morning.

The temporary fix to the damaged section of Highway 1 was expected to be completed by Memorial Day Weekend, and has been finished early. For now, a traffic light will allow southbound and northbound traffic to flow past the damaged section one at a time, using a single lane.

A permanent fix to the damaged southbound lane of the roadway will be completed next spring.

"Highway 1 is the jewel of the California highway system and our crews have been working non-stop for the last month and a half so Californians can have unrestricted access to this iconic area of our state," said Caltrans Director Tony Tavares in a statement.

"Crews have been working day and night to quickly repair the damage to Highway 1 caused by recent storms, which has disrupted the lives of individuals living in and around Big Sur – limiting access to the area and hampering tourism," said Governor Gavin Newsom. "Thanks to the diligent efforts, traffic will resume eight days ahead of schedule – bringing relief and a sense of normalcy back to one of California’s most iconic coastal communities."

Travelers can now access Big Sur from the north, however a rockslide-damaged section of Highway 1 remains completely closed about 40 miles south of Monterey, just past the Esalen Institute. That closure has been in effect since early 2023, and those coming from the south have had to take a three-hour detour to get to Big Sur.

Residents of the area are no strangers to being stranded and semi-stranded from the larger world, as Highway 1 has a habit of being hit hard by land movement, particularly in the winter and spring after heavy rains.

A massive landslide in May 2017, called the biggest in state history, engulfed a section of the highway south of Big Sur, and the process to get the road reopened after that disaster took over a year.

Previously: Road Collapse On Highway 1 Strands Around 1,600 People In Big Sur Over Holiday Weekend

With the southern end of Highway 1 in Big Sur still blocked from landslides that happened in 2023, there's only one way in and out of the picturesque area from the north. And now, after a slip-out on Saturday, that has been reduced to one usable lane with twice-daily convoys being allowed through.

Anyone who took a daytrip to Big Sur on Saturday, or those who were perhaps spending a weekend there, were surprised to learn they were stranded Saturday evening, with Highway 1 now closed at both the north end and south end of Big Sur.

The volatile highway, which is highly prone to land movement, offered one last rainy-season surprise during the relatively mild rains on Saturday. A whole section of the southbound lane fell into the ocean at at Palo Colorado Canyon, near the Rocky Creek Bridge, forcing Caltrans to shut down the highway completely until engineers could determine if it was sliding further.

The slip-out and road closure is about 17 miles south of Monterey.

As local station KION reported Saturday, Caltrans made the determination that the northbound lane was usable for traffic under close supervision, and they announced that convoys would begin Sunday morning, starting with one in the northbound direction.

Around 300 cars were waiting to head north out of the area on Sunday morning, as the Chronicle reports. An estimated 1,600 to 2,000 people were trapped overnight in the area, and a shortage of hotel rooms meant that many were sleeping in cars on roadsides, or seeking warmth at a temporary shelter that was set up at Big Sur Lodge.

Linda Molinari, a pilates instructor from Hollister, told the New York Times that she and her boyfriend were having a late lunch at Nepenthe when they heard the news from a server about the road closure. They had luckily brought their camper with them, which ended up becoming their shelter for the night. Molinari and her companion were among those 300 cars that drove out in the convoy Sunday morning, and she tells the Times, "It was a crazy, weird Easter."

The convoys were set to continue on Monday, one at 8 am and another at 4 pm, but Caltrans was warning motorists to "avoid all unnecessary travel."

Caltrans says it is assessing how to structurally reinforce and rebuild the collapsed section of roadway, but there's no time estimate yet for when Highway 1 can reopen to traffic. This could be disastrous, once again, for the hotels and restaurants in the area as the high summer season approaches.

As KSBW reports, all state parks in Big Sur are now closed, indefinitely.

Ripplewood Resort, which has 17 cabins and a grocery store, was all full on Saturday night, but a worker there told the Chronicle that the cabins all completely emptied out on Sunday, and it looks like they'll remain empty for some time.

The rockslides and landslides that closed Highway 1 at the southern end of the region occurred in January 2023 amid the torrential storms that hit Northern California last winter.

The other closure points are at Dolan Point (Post Mile 29.5) and Regent’s Slide (Post Mile 27.8), and northbound lanes are also closed south of Limekiln State Park (Post Mile 20). Anyone trying to travel north from Southern California, even before the Rocky Creek closure began, would need to take a three-hour-plus detour via 101 in order to reach Big Sur.

Other major landslides and bridge disasters have cut off the Big Sur community in the past, including a huge washout of Highway 1 in January 2021, and a massive landslide in May 2017 that was called the biggest in state history.

Starting at 9 p.m. Friday night, a nine-mile stretch of I-680 southbound will be closed for pavement repairs all weekend long, and the detours will reverberate for drivers on roads all over the East Bay.

If you have any weekend plans that involve driving near Pleasanton or Sunol, there may delays, detours, and confusion. The Bay Area News Group has the reminder that a stretch of I-680 southbound in Pleasanton will be closed all weekend for pavement repairs. The closure kicks in at 9 p.m. Friday night, and that nine-mile segment of I-680 southbound will remain closed until 4 a.m. Monday morning.

Nothbound traffic on I-680 will still be open and unaffected by the closure.

The short and sweet description of the closure is seen above. Basically, it’s the nine miles of I-680 between its intersection with I-580 in Pleasanton, and its intersection with State Route 84 in Sunol. Seems simple enough.

But things get much more complicated when you factor in all the detours, which stretch nearly from Napa all the way down to Sunol. Caltrans has a rundown of all nine detours that will be necessary for drivers to navigate this weekend’s closure.

That Caltrans rundown explains the repairs are necessary to “replace a portion of the existing deteriorated roadway with new pavement on southbound I-680, between I-580/I-680 Connector and Koopman Road. This work will repair deteriorating existing pavements and enhance motorist safety while reducing the number of nightly closures needed on the project.”

Caltrans also adds that the repairs could be rescheduled, because there is some possible rain in this weekend’s forecast.

Related: Floods Force Road Closures Across Bay Area; Ducks Were Swimming On I-580 In Oakland [SFist]

Image: Road closed and detour signs w barrier up close (Getty Images)

Motorists are noticing “mystery water” flowing through one of the bores of the Caldecott Tunnel, which is raising concerns about the tunnel’s structural integrity, but Caltrans insists this can be fixed with a little drainage work.

Something unusual is happening in State Route 24’s “gateway to Orinda,” the Caldecott Tunnel. As KTVU reports, there’s “a mystery surrounding water flowing” through Bore 1 of the tunnel, despite the lack of any significant rain in quite some time. Caltrans has also placed an electronic sign alerting motorists of the water, and some people are of course freaking out on Nextdoor whether this indicates structural problems for the tunnel.

But Caltrans insists it’s nothing to worry about, and is only happening because of excess water from the winter’s heavy rains.  

"The water is basically seepage, which is runoff from the rain we continually had earlier this year, and this is the water coming down from the hillside," Caltrans spokesperson Bart Ney tells KTVU.

That all sounds like a normal issue. But it shouldn’t be happening, and speaks to some aging infrastructure within the tunnel. That water is flowing as it ought to be, but it should not be accumulating, and the aging drains can’t handle the flow.

"They're just so significantly clogged that we're going to have to do something a little more robust," according to Ney.

The answer? More water! Caltrans feels the drains can simply be unclogged of debris and a calcium buildup with some water jet spraying, which they plan to do during low-traffic nighttime hours as soon as next week.  

Related: Gang Of Rogue Goats Appear Near Caldecott Tunnel [SFist]

Image: Pi.1415926535 via Wikimedia Commons

A whole section of freeway in Northern California basically started sliding down a hill, and travelers on 101 in remote Humboldt County will be held up by a single-lane situation.

Caltrans crews are at work repairing a whole segment of sunken roadway in Humboldt County, along Highway 101 in Redwood National and State Parks, near Cooks Valley and the county border with Mendocino.

As the Press Democrat reports, nearly a mile of the freeway suffered some damage, including this section that caved in both sides of the two-lane road — and traffic is being limited to one lane, using only the undamaged eastern shoulder of the road.

"If the highway is open, it's safe," Caltrans said on Twitter. "Crews are conducting and planning stabilization efforts including the use of soil nails."

The "slip-out," as Caltrans is calling it, seems to have occurred between Monday and Tuesday, and the photos above were posted Tuesday morning.

Caltrans spokesperson Myles Cochrane reportedly told radio station KMUD that crews had been conducting 24-7 monitoring of the roadway and they still are, as work gets underway to shore up this collapsed section.

Elsewhere in Northern California, Caltrans has had its hands full handling other impacted roads in flooded Monterey County, cleaning up downed trees all over, and maintaining safety up in the snowy Sierra. Eastbound I-80 was once again closed early Wednesday with chain controls in effect for westbound traffic, but the freeway is back open in both directions.

An unexpected snag straight from a Looney Tunes cartoon has held up the renewed clearing of West Oakland's Wood Street encampment, as Caltrans reportedly managed to hit a moving Amtrak train while bagging and tagging unsheltered people’s tents and structures.

The clearing of the notorious, more-than-mile-long Wood Street encampment in West Oakland resumed in its next phase on Monday, according to KTVU, after a federal judge halted the clearing in July. “​​Monday marked phase two of the three-phase clearing process, displacing dozens more homeless [residents],” KTVU reported Monday afternoon. “Eviction notices were sent to 40 people, offering them services and assistance, according to Caltrans. But only 12 accepted alternative housing.”

But when the clearing  continued Tuesday, well, things did not go as planned at all.

Neither Caltrans nor Amtrak has acknowledged this incident yet, but we sure have pictures being posted to social media to go on. “2:14 p.m. Caltrans has hit an Amtrak train going to San Jose while moving a shipping container at the Wood Street encampment,” says SF Public Press’s Yesica Prado in the tweet above. “Since the start of this eviction, Caltrans has had no safety spotters directing traffic or moving objects with the crane.”

A subsequent tweet indicates hastiness may have been an issue, and that the collision involved subcontractors from a company called Marinship. Most of the area covered by the Wood Street encampment belongs to Caltrans, though other parts belong to the City of Oakland and rail companies who use the tracks.

But other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, the clean-up is going great! KTVU adds that “Caltrans said it is on schedule to finish the clearing and fully close the encampment by the beginning of November.”

Though there was yet another fire at the Wood Street encampment early this morning, as seen in the KPIX video above. As KPIX explains, the fire started “at around 1 a.m. Tuesday” and burned “about 20 cars.” There is no indication who set the fire or why.

But the Amtrak train collision may make a difficult clear-out job even more difficult. There are currently no reported injuries, though not much detail either. It remains to be seen whether this incident, like various courtroom rulings before it, slows the timeline of the clearing of the Wood Street encampment.

Related: Oakland Audit Blasts Inability to Account for What Happened With $70 Million In Homeless Funding [SFist]

Image: @MikeOpera via Twitter

A yet-unidentified Caltrans employee was killed in the line of duty by a hit-and-run driver Friday morning some three miles west of Vacaville, and lanes of traffic are just beginning to reopen late Friday afternoon.

A Caltrans worker was killed on the job Friday morning in a hit-and run accident on Interstate 80. KPIX reports that the fatal accident was three miles west of Vacaville, “near the Cherry Glen Road on-ramp along westbound I-80.”

The above report from Sacrmenato’s KOVR was shot while the body was still on the highway, so there’s only so much they can show. That segment was shot for the 12 Noon news, and westbound traffic only backed up more in the hours to follow.

According to KOVR, highway patrol officers say the driver did drive away from the scene after hitting the Caltrans employee. That driver was quickly apprehended and is in custody, but neither the driver nor the victim’s name has been released yet.

Two lanes of westbound traffic were closed off for several hours, leading to traffic backups as far away as Dixon. Those lanes were reopened by 3:30 p.m. Friday afternoon.

Per KOVR, there “have been 189 employees killed while on the job along California roadways since 1921.” Just last month, the Bay Area News Group ran a memorial series dedicated to those 189 workers.

Related: Unicyclist Dies In Collision With Recology Truck In Hayes Valley [SFist]

Image: @RepGaramendi via Twitter