Northbound 101 through San Francisco closes for Labor Day weekend

If you plan to drive north out of San Francisco this weekend, the fastest route will be the one that is closed.

Caltrans is closing all northbound lanes of U.S. 101 between the Cesar Chavez and 17th Street exits, the stretch known as Hospital Curve, from 11 p.m. Friday to 6 a.m. Monday for repaving. Southbound lanes stay open. The agency announced the closure August 31 and the SF Standard and KQED both detailed the detours this week.

Here is the route to remember. Northbound drivers are being sent onto I-280, which carries traffic toward downtown San Francisco and the Bay Bridge. Drivers who miss the I-280 interchange get routed onto Potrero Avenue. Drivers from San Francisco International Airport can take I-380 to I-280, then re-enter U.S. 101 northbound near the Bernal Heights neighborhood, per the Press Democrat.

The closure is the first of two northbound shutdowns this month. Caltrans will repeat it from September 18 at 11 p.m. to September 21 at 6 a.m. Next month the agency closes southbound 101 between the 9th Street/Civic Center and Cesar Chavez Street exits over two more weekends, October 2 through 5 and October 16 through 19, for the same project, per the SF Standard. The Press Democrat reports the repaving is part of the Hospital Curve rehabilitation project that began in 2025, with crews on site 24 hours a day during each closure.

Why a whole weekend? The repaving runs crews around the clock. A Caltrans spokesperson told KQED the agency timed the closures "to do it with the least amount of impact on the public." The trade-off is that every holiday traveler heading north through the city shares the detour at the same time.

The better move may be to skip the drive. Caltrans encourages people to take public transit instead of driving, per the SF Standard. Check the agency advisories before you leave, because the second September closure will reroute the same traffic again three weeks from now.