Los Angeles prepares for massive car standstill

Los Angeles, a city renowned for its traffic, is about to face a jam of biblical proportions.

"Carmageddon" is the name Los Angeles residents are giving the likely epic traffic tie-up that will result when a 10-mile stretch of the 405 Freeway is closed for construction from tonight to Monday morning between two of the nation's busiest interchanges.

The unprecedented 53-hour shutdown, expected to delay motorists for hours on alternate routes with ripple effects on about a dozen other major highways, will allow crews to demolish a bridge as part of a $1 billion freeway-widening project.

In a sign that few motorists in America's second-largest city take a breezy attitude toward the closure, Los Angeles plans to open its emergency operations centre over the weekend.

The main message is "Stay away!" and has inspired a number of hotels outside Los Angeles to offer "Escape Carmageddon" discount packages.

But most people who live and work in and around the gridlock zone have no choice but to hunker down for the weekend.

The UCLA Medical Centre has secured 600 dorms and apartments as temporary quarters for hospital staff as part of an emergency plan to prevent doctors and nurses from getting stuck.

"We see this as being a disaster - only it's a planned disaster," said Posie Carpenter, the medical centre's chief administrator.

The stretch of road that will be closed, known locally as the Sepulveda Pass, is traversed by about 500,000 vehicles on a typical summer weekend, said Marc Littman, of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

The canyon pass is a traffic choke point even without a construction project, as it serves as a gateway from the city's San Fernando Valley to several beaches.