Labor Day Closures in Redondo Beach

Government offices, courts, schools, libraries, banks and post offices across the Southland will be closed Monday for Labor Day.

In Redondo Beach, city hall will be closed Monday, and refuse and recycling collection will be delayed by one day. There will be no street sweeping on Monday. The regular street sweeping schedule will resume Tuesday.

Both the Redondo Beach Main and North Branch libraries will be closed Monday in observance of the holiday.

Beach Cities Transit will run on a Saturday schedule, and all Metro-operated buses will operate on a Sunday schedule. For information on Metro schedules, visit www.metro.net or call (800) COMMUTE.

Those who will be traveling farther than the South Bay will join about 2.35 million Southland residents, a 3.4 percent jump from last year, according to the Automobile Club of Southern California.

Among those travelers, 1.85 million are expected to drive to their destinations, a 3.6 percent jump from last year, when 1.79 million people took to the roads, according to the Auto Club. About 306,000 people are expected to fly, up 4.1 percent from last year.

There is good news for those who plan to join the 1.85 million Southland residents who are expected to drive, especially those who want to go to the Central Coast: the first two Wilshire Boulevard freeway ramps rebuilt as part of the $1 billion I-405 Sepulveda Pass Improvements Project were reopened Friday, three weeks earlier than planned.

The westbound Wilshire Boulevard onramp to the northbound San Diego (405) Freeway was reopened, along with the northbound 405 Freeway offramp to westbound Wilshire Boulevard, said Dave Sotero of Caltrans.

The top destinations for Southland Labor Day travelers are expected to be San Diego, Las Vegas, the Central Coast, San Francisco and the Grand Canyon.

"Travel interest and bookings have seen improvement compared with 2011," according to Filomena Andre, the Auto Club's vice president for travel products and services.

"Although gas prices are expected to be higher this holiday weekend than during other Labor Day weekends, we anticipate this to have very little impact on holiday travel, because most people have planned their trips and made reservations before the dramatic rise in gas prices. And fuel costs typically represent a fairly small percentage of the overall trip budget."

Redondo Beach Patch readers can check traffic and gas prices before they leave by visiting the Commute page.

Across the state, 3.79 million people are expected to travel for the holiday weekend, also a 3.4 percent jump from last year. Of those traveling, 2.99 million are expected to drive and 492,000 will fly, according to the Auto Club.

Across the nation, more than 33 million Americans are projected to travel at least 50 miles away from home.

—City News Service contributed to this report.