Triathlon Causes Sunday Street Closures From Venice to Downtown

Major traffic disruptions can be counted upon Sunday from Venice east to downtown Los Angeles, as special events complicate local transit patterns across the Westside, Fairfax District, Koreatown and Staples Center area, city officials said.

The entire Westside and Midtown areas, from the Pacific Ocean to Staples Center, will be affected by north-south street closures at some point during the day, LAPD officers said. No north-south traffic will be allowed to cross Olympic Boulevard between Fairfax Avenue and the Harbor (110) Freeway for much of Sunday, and an all-day street closure in downtown Hollywood will add to traffic woes in the city, officials said.

To start, the intersection of Hollywood Boulevard at Highland Avenue in downtown Hollywood was closed Saturday morning and will remain closed until Monday evening. The new Cirque du Soleil show, "Iris," has a permit to close the street for an opening gala in the intersection in front of the Kodak Theater at Hollywood and Highland on Sunday.

On the Westside, Venice Boulevard and its cross streets will be closed at 6 a.m. Sunday starting at the Pacific Ocean, and then closing in stages east to Fairfax Avenue by 7 a.m. Some 3,000 competitors will start with an ocean swim, then bicycle east from the ocean to a foot race in downtown Los Angeles.

Venice and its cross streets will start opening from the ocean to the east, and the only reliable only north-south route will be the San Diego (405) Freeway between 6 a.m. and about 10 a.m.

In the Midcity and Fairfax districts, Fairfax Avenue and major cross- streets Venice, Pico and Olympic boulevards will be closed starting at about 7:10 a.m between the Santa Monica (10) Freeway and Wilshire Boulevard. East-west traffic is being detoured to the 10 Freeway, and Fairfax and its cross streets will start to reopen around 12:15 p.m.

Olympic Boulevard will be closed to all traffic, and all street crossing will be closed, as the bike racers go east, back west, and then back east again between Fairfax Avenue and the L.A. Live complex downtown. Olympic will have no pedestrian crossing points due to the double loop bike race, triathlon officials said.

Olympic and its dozens of cross streets will be closed from about 7:10 a.m. until about 1 p.m., race organizers said. North-south traffic will be detoured to the Harbor (110) Freeway.

At the end of the triathlon, Hope Street will be closed for the foot race component of the triathlon, also from about 7:10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Parking along the Venice-Fairfax-Olympic-Hope race course is banned as of 1 a.m. Sunday, and cars left on the street will be towed, city officials said.