Highway 58 reopened Monday morning after a faulty windmill near Tehachapi shut down all lanes of the road between highways 202 and 14.

Mojave CHP got the call about the out-of-control windmill located in the Tehachapi Wind Farm a little after 1:20 Sunday afternoon.

"For some reason the internal breaking mechanism or whatever they use to control the speed of the blades has failed," explained Mojave CHP Sgt. Royal Johnson. "It's turning at a high rate of speed which they can't stop or slow down, possibility is it can fragment and come apart."

Unfortunately, there was no easy way to shut off the windmill or quickly fix the problem.

Gary Spiller, the safety coordinator of Energy Maintenance Service, LLC, which operates the windmills in that area, said they had to wait until the winds died down below 30 mph before anyone could get close enough to fix it.

Given how close the windmill is to Highway 58 and to keep drivers safe, the main artery to Las Vegas and Barstow was closed for about a half day.

Drivers who Eyewitness News spoke with understood the reason for the closure, and one traveler, Daniel Bright, on his way to Arizona to visit his nephew who just got back from Iraq, wasn't too upset about the lost time.

"I'm pretty laid back. I don't stress about much. I just take it easy," he said.

But just about every other driver was frustrated.

Greg Tovar was on his way home when got stuck in the two hour, 25 mile detour.

"We're hungry and tired," he lamented. "So hopefully we get home soon."

According to the National Weather Service, the Tehachapi Mountain Pass is one of the three busiest areas in California, and this is also one of the windiest times of the year.