You know all that construction that's been happening along Doyle Drive on the approach to the Golden Gate Bridge? Well, it's called the Presidio Parkway, and it's all coming to a head this weekend as the whole approach from Lombard gets shut down for 57 hours, the Doyle Drive skyway gets demolished, and many people scream and cry as they try to get up to Sonoma for a little wine tasting and are forced to get there via the Sunset and 19th Avenue.

The good news is that we'll be using half of the cool new tunnel structure for the next three years to access the bridge. The bad news is that a lot of people didn't know this was happening, didn't know what or where Doyle Drive is, and there's going to be a shit ton of traffic both on 19th Avenue and dead-ending at Lombard.

They'll be demolishing ten football fields worth of elevated roadway between 8 p.m. Friday, when the road closes, and 5 a.m. Monday, making way for a new temporary bypass that will include one of the two tunnels that will eventually be the southbound tunnel in the finished parkway. After this is all over, construction begins on the next phase, which will include the second, northbound tunnel. There's already a new piece of elevated roadway on the north end of the new tunnel which includes a movable median (picture above) in order to improve traffic flow and eliminate the use of those little yellow peg things.

Long story short, you should use the ferries to get to Marin this weekend, and use the Bay Bridge and 80 to get to wine country. The end.

[Presidio Parkway]
[Chron]