The links, which were damaged when a semi-tractor-trailer jackknifed in the freeway's west-bound lanes about 11:25 a.m. near Radford High School, weigh about 2,000 pounds each.

"We decided to let the afternoon rush-hour traffic die down before we start the repair work," Ishikawa said.

He said one or possibly two west-bound lanes will be closed while the repairs are under way.

"We have plenty of replacement links on hand, so that won't be a problem," Ishikawa said.

State engineers have taken an initial look at the damaged sections and don't believe the damage is significant enough to keep the Zipper Lane from being deployed in time for peak-hour traffic tomorrow morning.

A crew normally begins to put the Zipper Lane in place at 12:30 a.m. But the crew will start about two hours earlier — at about 10:30 tonight — setting up lanes from the zipper machine storage house near the airport to near the Radford Drive overpass, Ishikawa said.

"It's a very short distance, but we want to be ready, just in case the repairs take longer than we think they they will. We will gain a little bit of time by setting up that short stretch of Zipper Lane earlier than we usually do," Ishikawa said.