Los Angeles Prepares for I-405 'Carmageddon' Shutdown: Are They Ready?

I dunno, I've never even been there but a one weekend closure doesn't seem like that big a deal to me... try go to south africa where the main highway between the two biggest city centers, the busiest highway in the country, has been under construction and repair for almost the last decade.

Those in the SF Valley, stay at home and those on the Westside do the same. It's only one weekend, not an eternity. The coals are added by the media frenzy!!

LA is showing Mexico City the way.

I look at that, and the small country road which I drive down to get to work and count my blessings.

Just like all other road closures they make plans and we will only know after the weekend if they were ready

I thought that was a permanent state-of-affairs down there.

Readiness is a state of mind which most people don't possess, and preparedness is a state of planning most public officials lack the mental capacity to truly grasp, much less actually implement.

I'm just curious, WHY are they shutting down this 10-mile stretch of road for 3 days?

All I can say is I'm glad I live and work 45mins south of the 405!

must suck to work every weekend.

How do you know I work every weekend?

Having on occasion spent in excess of 6 hours trying to get from Downtown LA to the I-15 Freeway returning to Vegas, I know that it will be interesting to say the least. And I-405 as well I have Parked on for hours.

We think of L.A. as backed up to the Pacific Ocean; all the way west as far as you can go. Did you know there are 6 state capitals further west?

Read it again slower but Scaramento is one of the six capitals further west than L.A.

Capitals of California, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Alaska, and Hawaii are further west; it's just a brain teaser, why get so bent over a little quiz?

sounds to me like it will be good practice to see how it will work out...just in case of the big one coming some day.....

Don't care.
It's California, and LA to boot.
You've got to be a bit nuts to live there in the first place.

I'm glad I'm not living in West LA now. Even on a weekend with all this warning, there is no way to prepare for the traffic jams this will cause. It certainly has to be done, but there just aren't enough alternate routes to handle even the barest minimum of essential traffic.

can you tell me how much traffic is on that stretch of road every weekend?

I don't know the statistics, but I used to drive it a lot on both week days and weekends. It's the Sepulveda Pass. Other than the ten-lane freeway (which I've never been able to drive at the speed limit all the way except in the wee hours of the morning), there is only one four-lane road that winds through the Pass, and it goes down to three lanes through a tunnel. The Sepulveda Pass is the only large pass through the mountains that separate the Los Angeles basin from the San Fernando Valley. Between the ocean and the Hollywood freeway, a distance of about 20 miles at the narrowest point, there are only three other passes at all. Beverly Glen, Coldwater Canyon, and Laurel Canyon are all steep, two-lane roads with speed limits as low as 15 mph because of the extreme curves.

The 405 freeway definitely needs to be widened because it is a traffic nightmare, even on weekends. Even for people willing to go 50 miles out of their way, the Hollywood Freeway and I-5 are already too congested to carry any extra traffic between the basin and the valley.

what exactly was i to gert out of your posting?

I didn't know the answer to your question, and I obviously failed in my attempt to answer it with relevant information that I did know. My point was that there is way too much traffic for a ten-lane freeway and there are no decent alternates, so the entire area for as much as 30 miles around will be impacted by massive traffic jams.

if you say so. but can you explain to me why you think the road should not be shut down for work?

My first comment said "It certainly has to be done." They HAVE to widen the freeway and on a weekend with lots of advance notice is the best way to do it, but it will still be chaos and massive traffic jams.

Just getting on any freeway, any time, can be hazardous to one's health. THey started warning people three months in advance. If this is truly any improvement, then it should be done. But why are they tearing down one fairly new bridge to build another.

I pity the fools who live in the over hyped hell hole known as LA.

guess they did not pay attention to the week long traffic jams that people had in china.. LOL

Probably not.

As much as LA trafficed it will cause even more delays during rush hour.

Ready or not here it comes. They have plenty of time to plan, hospitals have rooms, not all are in use, elective surgery can be re-scheduled. Rooms can be used to house employees that will be affected the most. Others can stay with people that live closer... it's just over 2 days people... get over it.

No..LA is run by cretins!

But we will survive.

The freeway is being shut down temporarily so part of a bridge can be demolished for a freeway improvement project. As one who lives in the area, I agree that this project is long overdue. There are plenty of hospitals in the Valley that can accept patients.

After the 1994 Northridge earthquake, part of the 10 freeway in L.A. collapsed, and all lanes of that section of the freeway were closed for several weeks. I was forced to drive several miles out of my way to get to my job in L.A., and, wonder of wonders, my usual 1-1/2 hour commute was shortened to 1 hour because there were less people using the freeways!

Why close all lanes? Surely they can keep at least one open going each way, that is stupid!!!!

Yes because people can just drive really fast around the chunks of falling concrete from the bridge they are bringing down...

Normally when a bridge is being replaced, they build the new one next to the old one so traffic can continue until the new one is done

The old one still has to come down...

Yeah but they could wait until the new one is built and functional first

I live in LA and I can just picture one thing : Christmas lights on the freeway