This might be a good weekend to avoid the Cypress Avenue bridge in Redding. Work crews will limit the crossing over the Sacramento River to one lane in each direction while they reroute traffic lanes.
By Monday, auto traffic (two lanes in each direction) will be on the northernmost bridge. The southern span will be used by pedestrians, bicyclists and the construction crews. This arrangement will allow crews to begin demolition of the last portion of the 1948 bridge, which currently stands between the two new bridges.
The new traffic pattern will remain in place until the project is finished in December 2010, city officials said. The $73 million bridges then will open with three lanes in each direction.
Motorists are urged to slow down in the construction zone.
- Music fans will be saddened to hear that harmonica legend Norton Buffalo is battling cancer. Buffalo, who lives in Paradise, has performed at MarketFest in Redding and about every other music venue you can name. His duets with blues guitarist Roy Rogers get a lot of stereo rotation at my house. Buffalo tells the Paradise Post that the cancer is a “nasty little bugger” discovered two months ago. He’s undergoing treatment and trying to stay upbeat. A November benefit concert is being planned. Full story here.
- Publishers Weekly has named its Top 10 best books of 2009, and I haven’t read a single one of them. How can this be? You can see the list here. I have to say that any such list that doesn’t include Pete Dexter’s “Spooner” is suspect. A longer best-books list comes out in the magazine’s Nov. 2 issue.
- Coming Soon to a “Law & Order” Near You: In Ohio, where private high-stakes poker games are legal, there have been a rash of robberies. In the latest one, robbers got $11,000 when they hit a card game in Cleveland that had been listed on the Internet. They held the players at gunpoint, made them take off their pants, then hosed them with pepper spray. That’s just mean. Full story here.
- DVD I Watched on the Dreadmill: Coincidentally, I just saw a movie called “The Poker Club,” which is about some poker buddies who accidentally kill a burglar. Nice, twisty story based on an Ed Gorman novel.
Tips appreciated: Send news tidbits to steveb.anewscafe@gmail.com.
