City paints over 2nd Street Tunnel graffiti. Taggers return within hours

Less than a day after city workers painted the 2nd Street Tunnel, long an L.A. graffiti haven, taggers covered the walls of the iconic tunnel again, according to an Instagram post.

Video footage posted by user @grafftv appeared to show people spray-painting new graffiti on top of blank walls as motorists drove by.

“Less than 24 hours after the 2nd Street tunnel in downtown Los Angeles was painted a sterile white for the first time in over six months, the city’s graffiti underground roared back to life,” the user posted. “What had been a clean slate at noon became by midnight a living gallery of street expression, filled with burners, rollers, and painted signatures from L.A.’s most well known vandals.”

City officials did not immediately respond to an inquiry about whether or when they would repaint the walls of the tunnel, which was finished in 1924 and runs from South Figueroa Street to Hill Street.

The 1,500-foot white-tiled tunnel is an L.A. landmark, featured in Hollywood movies such as the sci-fi epic “Blade Runner” and the biographical drama “The Soloist.” It is also a popular location for car commercials, with more than 70 shot there between 2006 and 2009.