With Memorial Day Weekend traffic in full swing, authorities shut down Highway 101 near Los Alamos for hours Friday afternoon while they investigated a suspicious object that was discovered near the roadway.

Caltrans issued a Sig Alert for the shutdown of the highway at Cat Canyon Road, which started at 1 p.m. and ended around 5:30 p.m. The closure was initially expected to last an hour or less. 

“A Caltrans crew member found something that may or may not be a bomb,” Officer Maria Barriga in the California Highway Patrol’s Santa Maria office told Noozhawk.

The bomb team from the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office responded to the scene to examine the item, Barriga said.

All Highway 101 lanes were closed in the area due to the CHP response near Cat Canyon Road, near Los Alamos.

Northbound vehicles were diverted at Los Alamos onto Highway 135, and southbound vehicles were diverted off Highway 101 to Union Valley Parkway and Highway 135 in Santa Maria. 

— Noozhawk executive editor Tom Bolton can be reached at tbolton@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.