Several upcoming closures on Southern California’s 405 Freeway — including the upcoming “Carmageddon II” which will shut down a portion of the major north-south route through Los Angeles and a two-weekend closure of a major freeway link between Orange and LA Counties — may cause major traffic delays, according to the California Dept. of Transportation (Caltrans).
Beginning this weekend, Caltrans plans to close a major freeway link from Orange County into the Los Angeles area. The transition road from the northbound 405 to the northbound 605 Freeways will be closed for 55 hours for the next two weekends, Caltrans officials announced.
The closure of the major freeway ramp between the 405 and 605 will be in effect starting at 10 p.m. on the Friday evenings of Sept. 14 and Sept. 21. The ramp will stay closed through the following Monday mornings.
The following week “Carmageddon II” will begin with the closure of an entire section of the 405 Freeway over the Sepulveda Pass for three nights and two days.
From Sept. 29-39 a 10-mi. stretch of the 405 between the 10 and 101 Freeways through Los Angeles will again be shut down for 53 hours for repairs.
The first “Carmageddon” closure was in July 2011, when construction crews demolished the south side of the Mulholland Drive bridge that crosses the 405. This time around, highway workers will be replacing the north side of the bridge.
L.A. County Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials said the possibility of gridlock is increased this time around because of “public apathy” resulting from the extensive outreach efforts that proved successful last year. However, the work project is more complicated this time around and highway users are warned to stay off local freeways over the Sept. 29-30 weekend whenever possible.
“More motorists may now be tempted to rejoin local roads and freeways, which has the potential to create the very traffic congestion and multi-hour delays transportation and law enforcement officials have warned about,” a Metro news release stated.
“Last year, we proved that Angelenos far and wide could rise to the occasion and cooperate with authorities to turn Carmageddon into ‘Carmaheaven’ free of apocalyptic traffic congestion,” said Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa in an LA Times report. “It was truly one of L.A.’s finest moments.... Do not become complacent.”
As with the previous I-405 closure, Sepulveda Boulevard is intended as an alternate route for local resident access only. Sepulveda Boulevard does not have the capacity to accommodate both local and diverted freeway traffic. Motorists should instead use alternate regional freeway routes to completely bypass the area. These include the 5, 15, 23, 55, 57, 101, 118, 126, 210, 605 and 710 freeways.
