L.A. Freeway Project Creates Challenge For Maintaining Eruv

Today's Los Angeles Times reports on the cooperation between highway construction personnel and the Los Angeles Jewish community in dealing with the unusual problems posed by the widening of the 405 Freeway.  The western boundary of the large eruv in Los Angeles is this freeway. (Map of eruv.) An eruv is a symbolic enclosure of an area that permits observant Jews within it to carry items on the Sabbath.  Much of the eruv consists of freeway fences or the freeway itself. However freeway widening has resulted in numerous breaches in fences and freeway walls-- all of which volunteers who maintain the eruv must keep track of and replace by, for example, stringing fishing line on 15-foot poles.