this is the on ramp to westbound 80. is blocked by downed trees that happened at 5:00 a.m., they don't know what caused the tree to go down but there is a grove of trees over here. that tree spilled into the on ramp, and westbound for. crews are out here trying to clear the debris. the high winds and the saturation we have experienced or last couple days will play a part in this. nobody hit this with car or anything like that. some cars that were passing through the on ramp did hit the tree, no major injuries but traffic issues. let me give you an idea of what the traffic looks like. the ramp is really backing up. >> george: think you for clearing that up. our originally the first reports did say the tree was downed, by a car. that is not the case. what jackies shot did not show was is backed up let me see if i can switch back to his shot here. the connecting ramp the lane is blocked. it can get towards a be-bop rate where mergers with the freeway. that's whlikely soe delays coming down from this skyway west towards high

detectable ramps. they are all detectable. nothing down below or protruding that people are going to get snagged up on. smooth clean that nobody is going get caught up on. >> our no. 1 issue is what we see here, the uplifting and shreufting to concrete due too street tree roots. here is another problem we have with street trees. if i have i was a person blind, this would be an uncomfortable way to find out. >> we don't want to create hazards. >> sometimes vendors put sidewalk cafes where people push the chairs too far out. >> sometimes it can be impassable. so much foot traffic that there is no room for a wheelchair or walker to go by. >> san francisco is a lively street life, it can be an issue with people with visual disabilities as well. they have these diverting barriers on other side of this tables and chairs area. if people can find thraeur way around it without getting tangled up, it is still fully accessible. >> we don't want anything special. we want people to basically adhere to the regulations and laws as they are o

we were just up on the ramp. just after midnight the chp got reports that a piece of this sign was dangling over the road and soon after a truck hit it. it went through the windshield of the truck and hit the driver in the face. the driver had major facial injuries and is expected to survive. also major damage to the truck and caltrans and the california highway patrol came to shut down the transition ramp. they set out flares and are escorting traffic through the area. the bottom line is that if you're on northbound 101, you cannot get on northbound 280 at that normal spot that you would be able to hit downtown san francisco. it will be closed until 7:30 to secure the sign. >> thank you, anne makovec in san francisco. >>> the storm also causing some outages right now. the biggest power outage is along the san mateo county coast. about 3600 people in the moss beach area all in the dark at this hour. there are also some outages in the east bay, as well. more than 400 in alamo and the danville area. 790 in the oakl

an emergency ramp closure in is. if you are coming up northbound 101 the ramp to northbound 280 heading towards like the king street exit if you pass by at&t park, that ramp is closed and they are saying it won't be re- opened until close to 7:45 this morning. we'll be talking about this for a while. they have to do some emergency repair to an overhead road sign taken down during an earlier injury crash. this is just one of many injury crashes across the bay area. overnight we had several spinouts. right now chp is working about 17 or more different incidents across the bay area. here's live look at what it looks like out there. this is the san mateo bridge. traffic is still very light right now. westbound 92, there is a high wind advisory. caltrain issued that for just about every bridge in the bay area including the san mateo bridge. high wind advisory at the bay bridge toll plaza. a lot of standing water out there. gosh, i noticed it when i was coming into work this morning. you can see it in the middle lanes appr

the ramp begins right at the door and goes up.the way that they have achieved compliance in san francisco is to use an administrative bulletin that we allow people to use power door operators. you push that little square button, the door opens and there is no longer a door in the path of travel and you can go right up the ramp. how does that generally work out, paul? . >> they work great. what happens with slopes and doors is that gravity takes over and the chair slopes backwards or slides backwards from the door. so you are trying to hold the chair and open a door while the chair slides backwards. in berkley, we actually have high and low. we put one down around a foot plate which where somebody using a wheelchair who doesn't have any kind of arm function or can't reach that high, they can hit it with a foot plate. we are finding that more people prefer to kick them than use foot plates on them. people that play soccer, especially during world cup they were very popular things to kick. delivery people use them a lot of time to ki

we are now moving to a new area of the project, the western side of the ramp, so we are ramping up our outreach to those neighbors as well. we are also coordinating communication for utility efforts, buttress and shoring, and excavation efforts happening. we will continue our e-mail updates and continue to hold our monthly elkridge meetings at the tjpa. media efforts will focus on securing national exposure for our engineering and construction accomplishments. as you are aware, this is one of the most exciting projects under construction in the country and we will be pitching what it takes to build the first modern high-speed rail station in the country. >> thank you. now nancy will give the update on our funding. >> good morning. 2010 was a big year for us. we achieve two major milestones in the way of receiving a $400 million grant from ara for the train box, as well as completion of our loan. we also have grant allocations that are approved for bridge tolls. we also got the final amount of the san mateo tax money allocated to the program. fra allocated the $400 million. so we have a

it's an injury crash on the arby on-ramp to westbound 80. if you normally get on westbound 80 and take arby, take powell and university. it's blocking the entire ramp. i'll keep an eye on this when it clears. the crash. if you're taking mass transit today for president's day, keep in mind muni, bart and caltrain will run on a holiday schedule and there's no service today for the alameda harvard bay and alameda oakland ferries but ace on a normal schedule reporting no delays. >> frances, thank you very much. it's 4:39 now. a suicide bomber kills more than two dozen people in afghanistan. more unrest in libya. the upper hand protestors now say they have even as the government turns to violence to shut them down. and the california yacht and american crew that are now in the hands of somali pirates and what the u.s. >>> i'm frances dinglasan in the traffic center. you're looking at a live injury accident in berkeley. it's blocking the arby on-ramp to westbound 80. you may want to consider powell and university. we'll keep an eye on this and see

they have decided that they need to put a new sign up before opening up the ramp. the bay bridge westbound is not bad at all. meter lights may be about to be turned on. so far they are not active. there are wind advisories for almost all bay area purchase.bridges. san o bridge looks good so does the san mateo bridge. there is a windy advisory here but light traffic in the southbound direction. getting to the golden gate bridge could be a problem, there is flooding on the connecting ramp coming from park presidio drive on to doyle drive. north of the macarthur tunnel. >> mark: we continue to cover weather and traffic will tran is on the roadways in the south bay. >> will: on northbound 1 01, you are looking at the same thing i'm looking at. visibility not that great is the rain continues to come down. every now and then it is heavy. the water from the sky not the only thing you have to worry about. because there's so much water on the ground you have to deal with the water being picked up by the cars in front of you. make sure you have plenty of space between you an

and at that point, they shut down that connector ramp. so the bottom line is you cannot go from 101 northbound to 280 northbound. you can either stay on 101 northbound or choose 280 northbound but you cannot go between the two. crews here from caltrans and the chp trying to secure that sign but they don't think they are going to be able to do that until about quarter to 8:00 this morning so this is definitely going to cause commute problems. that's going to be something their going to be dealing with for most of the morning commute. frank and sydnie? >> all right, anne makovec in san francisco. >> on saturday i was on a boat in the bay near angel island at 73 degrees. and then voila, look what we have, lawrence. >> winter came roaring back in the bay area. and it was about time. we started to see some of the rain totals going below normal but we are picking up a whole lot of rain and the winds have been something else. this san jose video coming in but we have seen some trees down, rain up to 3" in some of the wetter spots already and the

there are other ramps around the city. this is a fully complying ramp that serves a lot of people with disabilities so it has to be completely complying including nonslip-resistant surface, readily achievable to put in slip-resistant surface. hand rails have to terminate at the wall or otherwise extend, not just a stubby little end. this is the other end of the ramp. here we have somebody using a cane coming down the stairs. you see the tape is coming off of this stair? i wanted to mention the behavioral uses that i keep talking about involve maintenance as well. somebody, you can't just put it in and leave it, you have to walk around and say is everything working? and replace the tape and that's a reasonable expectation. >> well, tape is a good retrofit solution, but a better design solution at the beginning would actually be to cast in place stone that has a darker color so that you have a permanently installed contrasting striping at the nose. >> here we have stairs in a new building. all new buildings are supposed to h

that connection ramp is closed.ntime you want to stay on north sew is heading down the downtown areas an an alternate. another connection ramp closed and this is the west 80 connector to south 880. you're going to be detoured on to 580 and big rigs are allowed at this point. also not a good time to drive up to tahoe h. you will need to bring your chains. they're required on 80 and of course on 50th at this point. get the latest controversy information whenever you want. >> frances, thanks for may go that point. there's a white right now. >> salvage crews are moved an barge that was grounded near the yacht club in san francisco to keep it from sinking. it was loaded with fuel and hydraulic fluid. the captain's decision to ground the vessel stopped serious environmental damage. a small amount of fluid did leak but it was cleaned up. >> a new survey by an international network of experts called the cochran library concludes that zinc can help a cold suffer think better faster. those that had lozengers, tablets, it shor

our other ramp closures are in the east bay, it is the connecting ramp from westbound 80 on to the nimitzshut down. although the traffic management center tells me that is likely to reopen by 7:00. your alternate is 580- east bound. one lane and that connector is shut down. this is emergency road repair these grants could open as early as 1.5 hours. now back up or delay but the potential for huge problems exist. when the advisory in effect for all bay area bridges except that benicia bridge. t m c just confirming those when the advisers are still in effect although it is light traffic at the toll plaza for the bay bridge, a golden gate still in the process of reconfiguring the lanes. as they move the pile on server adding one more lane southbound. mark. >> i am driving southbound 680 from fremont to san jose it is wet, cold, windy and more poor and the it is dark. the reason i mention that is the rain came down so quickly that there are puddles of water on the roadway. it will be a problem at this time because traffic is so late. but when it picks up you can imagine what kinds of problems

that connection ramp is completely shut down. they have one lane open though connecting to 580 and they are allowing big rigs on 580 at this point. and, mike, when is this wet weather gonna end? >> the steady rain is ending now but there's a lot of ponding on the roadways left over from that heavy rain. south of 80 that's where we have the steadier rain and it is moving ever so slowly down to the south. since you're going to have a tougher commute because it's going to be raining on you. more scattered in nation and that's what happens this afternoon. showers develop, some thunderstorms will develop. brief, heavy rain, some small hail and even lightning so we could have flash flooding later on this afternoon. let's get over to eric for the news of the day. >> mike, thank you very much. it's 5:03. the storm left its mark from down downed trees to puddles you can almost swim through. >> eric, you might be able to swim through it. some people are having trouble driving through it. out here at the toll plaza, 200 yards before the pla

the westbound 4 to west 80 connect ramps currently blocked by a tree that's fallen on the connector ramp. you can find out more by going to our website. go to abc7news.com. collect on the bay area traffic link. eric, kristen. >> frances, thanks a lot. >> why the u.s. could one day send new prisoners to quantanamo bay. >> he doesn't need to eat, never sleeps and will happily post tweets all day long. why the next possible resident >> welcome back. it's 5:24 let's make it. the obama administration may not be in such a hurry to close the prison at quantanamo bay after all. congressman leon penetta said that get moe is probably where osama bin laden and other senior al-queda leaders would be taken if they're captured alive. this is the first acknowledgement that the controversial prison might be used to hold future detainees. other officials added the president is committed to closing the prison and the long-time critic called the statements very disturbing. >> the father of the so-called american taliban john walker lynn continues to strongly defend his son. franklin spoke to law students y

a connection ramp closed north 101 to north 280 until about 7:45.u need to avoid due to an accident that damaged a sign as well. if you're north 280, you can head to the 280 extension. great highway closed due to flooding. that bothers retired officer that told me about that great highway and how he always takes that in the morning. approaching tennisson, this injury accident involving five to six cars and a motorcycle. the two left lanes blocked. the traffic heavy from 238. westbound 80, turns out it wasn't an overturn crash but it's a solo spinout. traffic backed up just towards the end of the parking lot. check out this live shot in saw. 80 at kingdale. actually closed at daughter lake due to a jackknifed big rig. eastbound 80 currently open but begin that could change and, of course, you need to bring chains on any freeway you're taking up in the sierra you can get the latest by going to abc7news.com. eric? >> frances, thank you very much. 6:54 now. evidence is mounting that the element zinc really is effective in treating colds. you're seeing m

the access is quick and direct because the ramp is short. both the president's podium and clerks area are made permanently accessible. from an historic preservation perspective, the recreates a small footprint within the chamber. it maintains the balance of the room. it preserves all of the historic material in the president's desk and clark's desk and allows for but does not require the use of the historic function of the president's podium. why the current configuration is not sufficient -- it is not compliant. we have a temper iran that was placed on top of carpeting. we have, in fact, somewhat a risky area for someone in a wheelchair. the bottom line is this was required work when the building was renovated. i will now turn it over to director riskin for the cost. >> good morning. as is laid out in the budget analyst report, the cost for the work moving forward is about $477,000. it is mostly city-labor. we took a lot of pain in the past few years to minimize the cost to the greatest extent possible. this is an absolute bare bones budget

what we are doing is getting these ready for a ramp that very few people will appreciate. this is very difficult to accept. i'm michael long, this is part of my experience. i do think that the effort that the city has put so far into the park is significant and much more must to get done. what i want to say was about this room, i had the experience sitting in this chair and sean elsbernd when he was sitting in that chair, i questioned whether this is actually an accessible room. often, i had to move my chair and i did that know if she was going by me. i witnessed this happening over and over again. are we looking at a political argument about whether or not this area is acceptable and we have not resolved the accessibility issues right here in this room have reconsidered it how we will put these in an arrangement that would produce the kind of flexibility that we need? i don't think that we consider this as wholeheartedly as we could. i am not clear what i will do on my vote but it is very important that we raise these issues. >> perhaps i can help the supervisor. i receiv

as this system moves in it is going to ramp up.his is the kind of system you're going to hear it and notice it. rain on the roof, wind out there in the trees. and if you go to bed early you'll probably be waking up in the middle of night by strong winds. here's the system as it starts to move on shore. the main system sitting out here is spinning energy our way. it stays offshore spinning energy our way right through the week. so this deal tonight, it's going to be wet. on a scale of one through 10 it's a 7.5 with wind and rain. tomorrow there'll be scattered showers. then the rain keeps coming. more scattered showers. by thursday and friday there's another system that's taking shape that might be similar to this one. what am i saying, don't put the umbrellas away and be prepared for tomorrow's commute. this afternoon's commute, it's starting to be wet. by tomorrow morning the roads will bewet and scattered showers coming down. 43 in vallejo, that winter storm warning in the mountaining they mean it. i would not be surprised if the

earlier reports of a tree down, still blocking this ramp on westbound highway 4, the ramp to westboundll completely shut down. there was actually a couple of accidents on that ramp as well. see affecting the drive for -- so affecting the drive for people coming out of franklin canyon. better news in san francisco. northbound 280 just before 101, we had a multi-vehicle injury crash cleared to the right shoulder. all lanes are open. so things look a whole lot better now coming up from daly city. here's the standing water on the bay bridge toll plaza in the middle lanes. again, watch out for some cars making big splashes as they drive by but so far, so good. no delays heading into san francisco. wind advisories for almost all bridges in the bay area. here's a live look at the golden gate bridge, so far smooth commute through marin. remember our radio partners when you hit the roads, kcbs 740-am and 106.9-fm. we are also on twitter now. our producers are hard at work putting in all the latest traffic information. catch us on twitter at cbs 5 traffic. >> thank you. >>> here's a check of tod

this is southbound 101 the ramp to whipple avenue the off-ramp there.a couple of minutes ago they were able to partially re- open the ramp but you can see there are still flares out there. and we were following it looks like one of the cars involved in the crash is still off to the shoulder on its side. again, tow crews just got there. so they are working to completely clear it. but we also learned from chp that the other driver involved in this crash took off on foot so they are calling this a hit- and-run. chp still on scene now. thank you for those live traffic picks from chopper 5. 101 traffic by the way still moving across okay. we are also following fog advisories along the peninsula 280 some portions seeing just about 50 feet of visibility from hillsborough all the way down to about 280 so this stretch through here. they are also telling us that speeds are low and low visibility as well on stretches highway 92 from about skyline boulevard towards the 280 interchange. so take it a little extra slow this morning, be extra careful through that stret

we'll let you know when they re- open the ramp. following this accident in daly city, southbound 280 before serramonte boulevard. right now two lanes blocked due to a crash. so not causing any huge delays. it's still early. traffic is very light across the bay area. as evidenced by the camera there at the bay bridge toll plaza, no problems all the way into san francisco. you're looking good this morning all across the upper deck, although there is some construction until 5:00 from the incline out towards treasure island. they have two lanes blocked. that is your traffic. back to you. >> thank you. >>> 4:39. waiting for your california driver's license? you're not alone. the temporary fix starting today. >> i live in the south bay and it's about 4.10. >> you can expect gas prices t -- to go higher. >>> the new scam on facebook involving soldiers and women. coming up. ,,,,,,,,,,,,,, >>> partly cloudy around the bay this morning. above freezing for a change with the highs headed into the upper 50s to low 60s. >>> we'll take it, jim. t

we'll get a live look at the high street on-ramp. we did have flashing lights. looks like they are just around the bend passing the high street off-ramp past the coliseum. a light volume so far. back to you. >>> today you may see an impressive sight on the bay bridge. crews are gearing up for another major operation. christie smith is live on treasure island where another segment of the tower will be moved into place. good morning, christie. >> reporter: good morning to you, scott. with each segment that goes into this tower it is looking more and more like the centerpiece to the new bay bridge that it is designed to be. the fourth segment will bring the tower up to 480 feet tall. when construction is complete the tower will stand 525 feet tall, which is higher than any other bay area landmark. you are going to see crews out here around the clock, at least until this segment is secure, to follow developments launching a facebook bay bridge as well. the tower is made up of four independent legs, each one made up of five different sections. to give you perspective

the access is quick and direct because the ramp is short. both the president's podium and clerks area are made permanently accessible. from an historic preservation perspective, the recreates a small footprint within the chamber. it maintains the balance of the room. it preserves all of the historic material in the president's desk and clark's desk and allows for but does not require the use of the historic function of the president's podium. why the current configuration is not sufficient -- it is not compliant. we have a temper iran that was placed on top of carpeting. we

right in gorky park in the city center and it certainly ramps up the interest among spectators with thousands flocking to the venue it's incredible it's impressive what they've been able to do with the manpower and everything just building up a sado. scaffolding were on the council they were taking a little rickety elevator all the way up to the top that everybody just like you know but it's it's it's pretty impressive the russian stage of the freestyle skiing world cup remains the only intercity venue of this competition organizers hope that the temporary ramp will become permanent and that skiing events in central moscow will become as regular an event as the city's winter snow muscovites and guests of the russian capital truly lucky when it comes to sporting spectacles whether it's summer or a woods a sport that you fancy you will always find something to your liking including americans and ski events in one of the largest cities on earth koester of artsy moscow. and us it was four seasons boston but i'll be back with more news than testament to us to see them.

different from the rest of the world cup stages because it's the only place where we compete on a ramp in the center of a huge city it's psychologically very difficult so it's a very special victory. russian freestyle skiers might not be among the sport's elite just yet however their country is one of the leaders in making this spectacular show at favorite for the fans it was the third time that moscow has hosted the world cup stage no easy thing given that the russian capital sits on almost entirely flat terrain you can't move mountains but in organizational terms that's what happened with the construction of a huge ramp right in gorky park in the city center and it's certainly ramped up the interest among spectators with thousands flocking to the venue it's incredible it's impressive what they've been able to do with the manpower and everything is building up a sade out of scaffold they were on scaffolding were taking a little rickety elevator all the way up to the top that everybody just like frank you know but it's it's it's pretty impressive the russian stage of the freestyle skii

numerous problems those on and off ramps.he on-ramp to southbound 101 will be temporarily closed for a spinout into a ditch. a lot of accidents out there and you can find them all on abc7news.com. kristen. >> frances, thanks a lot. swearing in ceremonies are usually pretty sedate but that wasn't the case in san jose last night. >> upon which i am about to enter. >> upon which i am about to enter. >> judge cave a high five to christopher moore and the family came down to pin on his new badge. >> there it is. >> thank you. >> 6:54. recapping our top stories, the santa cruz mountains are bearing the brunt of that major storm pounding the bay area. >> jenelle wang live along highway 17 and now it's so foggy, we can barely see you there, jenelle. >> the camera's fogged up, i'm sorry. but let me tell you about the driving conditions, lots of rain, lots of wind. fog up here, possibility of mudslides, rocks, possibility of downed trees. chp said there could be black ice and ponding water. if you're driving, be careful out there. calt

that ramp is closed. they are fixing a sign that is damaged in an overnight accident. it won't be fixed until 7:45. i want to mention a motorcycle accident it's on the right shoulder. there is a minor complaint of pain to someone that fell off the bike there. let's go live pictures now. northbound 101 san francisco we will be watching that because more people will be on it not being able to use 280 extension. this morning drive at the toll plaza is okay. we do have a little bit of standing water there. we will be driving through tough conditions. at 520 let's go -- at 5:20 let's go to steve. >>> thank you, sal. keep an eye on the sky. today will be one of the days if you love towering qume louse we will have plenty showers possible. more the same tomorrow. it looks like thursday night into friday the next system will come in with rain. today will be more hit and miss. the weekend i don't think it will be as rainy. after saturday it will be all right. sunday looks good. cool and breezy. it will not be warm. it should be much warmer. today is the first day the cold air p