I-10 In Pass Area Hit With Heavy Traffic As Coachella Wraps

RIVERSIDE COUNTY, CA — With the wrap of Weekend One of the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival, it's time for thousands of people to hit the road. As of Monday afternoon, 'Chellageddon traffic' was in full force on Interstate 10 from the Coachella Valley through the San Gorgonio Pass, traffic reports showed.

The Monday following each weekend of Coachella and Stagecoach is notorious for an extra long drive west on I-10, and this year proved to be no different. Interstate 10 was clogged beginning Monday morning starting at Jefferson Street in Indio. According to SigAlert.com, average speeds of 31 miles per hour at the freeway exit picked up near Monterey Avenue just a couple miles away.

Once out of the festival area, mild traffic slowed motorists to around 50 miles per hour with increased congestion at the Highway 111 and 10 Freeway interchange, and then again as 1-10 splits at the Moreno Valley (60) Freeway.

A SigAlert was issued on the 60 Freeway near Pigeon Pass Road due to a crash involving a downed power line, adding to the post-festival crawl.

The festival will continue with around 160 acts next weekend at the Empire Polo Field, where capacity crowds of 125,000 a day are expected.

— City News Service contributed to this report