LA Road Construction Update: 405 Freeway and Sunset Blvd Closures for Bridge Demolition
If you commute to the Westside of Los Angeles via the I-405 freeway or Sunset Boulevard, you may want to look for a detour — if you haven’t already.
Construction has been going on for weeks now on the Sunset overpass and now it’s time for the real deal. Over the weekend, crews pulled out their jackhammers, shut down lanes of traffic on both the 405 and on Sunset, and commenced the demolition of the southern half of the bridge.
What does this mean for commuting Angelenos? For one: patience. This construction project is expected to take nearly two years — after 10 months of rebuilding the southern side of the bridge, workers will repeat the process on the northern half. And while one of the unpleasant ramifications of this will be more traffic congestion, the end results should be well worth it.
According to the LA Times, notable improvements will include:
- rebuild the bridge with 16 pre-stressed concrete girder, 30 feet wider, a bit higher, and better able to withstand earthquakes
- a 10-mile northbound carpool lane to the stretch of the 405 between the 10 and 101 freeways through the Sepulveda Pass
- realigning 27 onramps and offramps
- widening 13 existing underpasses and structures
- building about 18 miles of retaining and sound walls
Sunset Boulevard will be closed in both directions at night through Wednesday, so please plan accordingly to avoid the frustration of having to do a last-minute detour. For more information on closures, detours, and maps of the construction areas visit http://www.metro.net/405.
How do you feel about this construction? Is the short-term pain worth the long-term gain? Have you found a new route already? Feel free to let us know in the comments.
Ryan Mason is the Social Media Editor for Partners Trust Real Estate.
You can email him at ryan.mason@thepartnerstrust.com
And follow him on Twitter via @masonry.
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There is so much to love about living in L.A. One of the challenges, however, is… traffic!
Community blogging is a way for us to all stick together and help each other out – alerting our local neighbors to alternative routes so that they don’t get in a jam. Leave your own ideas for alternative routes here in the comments section!
While it may be a bit idealistic to think this way, if you have the right frame of mind, you could find that a detour from your usual route to work actually helps your overall mental health.
All too often we get into ruts — stale routines. One of those for me is the way I take to work. Mixing it up and taking a different series of streets exposes you to different parts of the city you may not have seen before. And this new mental stimulus can keep you fresh and alert.
Long term gain…absolutely. I drive over the 405 and get on the 101 West 5 days a week. The time it took to rework the onramps at that interchange and widen the mouth of the entry to the 101 by one lane has made a HUGE difference to my commute time. I welcome the progress and consider this plan far better than my fantasy of creating a tunnel that started at Barrington and went underground ala certain tunnels in NYC and opened up at Thurston on the other side of the 405. Mine would be more fun however…I also love the courteous attempts by the construction crews in keeping the area clean and safe. Job well done.