In 2003, Indianapolis completely closed the major Interstate artery through downtown over the summer to replace all the bridges at once[1]. It went pretty smoot

In 2003, Indianapolis completely closed the major Interstate artery through downtown over the summer to replace all the bridges at once[1]. It went pretty smoothly, faster than expected and under budget (the contractor was awarded a bonus of $1MM for every day it reopened ahead of schedule). I-65 and I-70 are pretty major arteries across the country, luckily Indy has a convenient ring interstate, 465, that most through traffic was able to utilize, as well as plenty of alternative highways for locals to use to get to and around downtown. I don't imagine something similar would work all that well in the Bay Area, though, since there's really only two routes to take up and down the peninsula, and both are near capacity already. Looks like they did it again last summer, to a lesser extent [2]. I no longer live in the area, so don't have any firsthand knowledge of how smoothly that went. [1]: https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/publications/publicroads/04mar/01.cfm https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/publications/publicroads/04mar/01.c... [2]: https://www.in.gov/indot/3687.htm https://www.in.gov/indot/3687.htm