Saturday: there may be a touch of traffic in the Southland

This Saturday is shaping up to be one of those epic traffic days in the Southland, with four big events scheduled:

Oregon vs. USC football at the Coliseum, 5 p.m. Expected crowd: 80,000 to 90,000.

Cubs at Dodgers, 7 p.m. Expected crowd: 55,000-plus.

Washington State vs. UCLA at the Rose Bowl, 7:15 p.m. Expected crowd: 70,000-plus (unless everyone stays home to watch Dodgers).

Neil Diamond concert at Staples Center, 8 p.m. That's probably good for another 10,000 to 15,000 people.

There are mass transit options available. The Gold Line serves downtown Pasadena, with connecting shuttles to the Rose Bowl. City DASH buses run from Union Station to Dodger Stadium, and Staples Center is adjacent to a Blue Line stop and near a subway stop. The MTA has buses going to the Coliseum.

Good luck out there.

--Steve Hymon

Bottleneck Bulletin:  A spill of what was initially described as a “white, powdery substance” in the northbound lanes of the Hollywood (101) Freeway in Hollywood today turned out to be construction mortar, but the spill snarled traffic on the heavily traveled route. A hazardous materials team was called to the scene at 2:18 p.m. on the northbound 101 at Pilgrimage Bridge, with fire officials initially uncertain what the material was. Two far right lanes of the freeway were closed and a SigAlert was issued, said California Highway Patrol Officer Alex Gonzalez. He said the lanes were expected to open before the afternoon rush hour. Fire officials were “waiting for vacuum trucks to arrive to clean things up,” said d’Lisa Davies of the city Fire Department. “With the winds, the substance does create some eye irritation, and that’s what the concern is,” Davies said. -- City News Service