Los Angeles - Carmageddon II is coming 9/28-30

As you may recall Carmageddon I (closure of 405 between 10 and 101) was thankfully a non-event as people decided to stay home (and what a wonderful weekend that was to be on LA freeways).

We'll see how it goes this time but if you plan to get from LAX and points south to the valley and beyond that weekend you may want to rethink your plans.

I am flying back to LAX that sunday night and I am not looking forward to the drive home...

Will JetBlue offer flights "2405" and "2406" this time?

As you may recall Carmageddon I (closure of 405 between 10 and 101) was thankfully a non-event as people decided to stay home (and what a wonderful weekend that was to be on LA freeways).

We'll see how it goes this time but if you plan to get from LAX and points south to the valley and beyond that weekend you may want to rethink your plans.

I am flying back to LAX that sunday night and I am not looking forward to the drive home...

Alright, I'll bite...

Which roads are they closing this time?

Alright, I'll bite...

Which roads are they closing this time?

They are closing both ways. They did it last year because of construction on a road overpass of 405. Its my understanding its working on the same thing.

They have done this in other cities such as in the bat area where they close the bay bridge for a weekend for maintenance...in seattle they close Hwy 520 bridge for maintainence/inspection over an entire weekend.

Good point - same road same stretch again. IIRC they demolished one side/pillar last year and now it's time for another one.

Can't believe how long this never ending construction is taking. I don't think i even saw this bloody freeway in some sort of finished steady state over the last 10 yrs i've been here.

I thought the plan is to extend the overpass bridges so they can widen that stretch of 405 a couple of lanes each direction.

I thought the plan is to extend the overpass bridges so they can widen that stretch of 405 a couple of lanes each direction.

I am not sure whether the Mulholland Drive Bridge itself is being lengthened. What I have observed is that the pillars supporting the new bridge are farther apart.

The bridge runs east/west. Last summer, the southern lanes of the bridge were demolished. They have now been rebuilt. Next month, the northern lanes will be taken down and rebuilt in the next year.

Here is a photo of the demolition in progress during Carmageddon I:

http://img.ibtimes.com/www/data/images/full/2011/07/16/132407-workers-demolish-the-mulholland-drive-bridge-along-the-closed-405-free.jpg

The project was started in May 2010 and the intent is to add a carpool lane on the northbound part of the 405 freeway from the 10 freeway on the Westside of LA to the 101 freeway in the San Fernando Valley. The old bridges on Sunset, Skirball, and Mulholland needed to be rebuilt to accommodate the wider freeway. Mulholland is the largest of the three bridges.

Because apparently someone complained about moving the bridge a few yards away, they instead elected to rebuild the bridge over Mulholland in 2 stages. The first stage began after Camageddon I in July, 2011 and resulted in tearing down the Southern part of the Mulholland bridge. Note in the above photograph the 3 pillars per side. Only one set of pillars was removed at this time.

The rebuild was supposed to take place in a year, and now, 14 months later, they will be tearing down the Northern part of the bridge which includes 2 sets of pillars. On Carmageddon I, they did finish the demolition early and opening up the freeway a few hours early on Sunday afternoon.

No one knows what to expect on Carmageddon II as they need to demolish twice as many pillars.

Whether accidentally or on purpose, this weekend USC football is on a bye week and UCLA football is playing on the road. The Dodgers have a homestand and are in a pennant race so traffic to Dodger Stadium may be affected.

The Dodgers have a homestand and are in a pennant race so traffic to Dodger Stadium may be affected.

Very unlikely, as no one in their right mind goes to Dodger stadium via the 405. Dodger Stadium is generally served from the North by I-5 and US 101, and to a lesser extent I-110 and the Pasadena Freeway (CA 2).


The real issue will be anyone trying to get from the San Fernando Valley and points North to LAX, Santa Monica, Westwood, Century City, etc., and vice-versa.

Out of town folks driving in from the North needing to make a LAX connection that weekend should allocate at least a couple of hours extra to avoid the 405. Either by taking Highway 1 in from Ventura or cutting around via 101 (and surface streets) or I-5 .........to the I-10 W to the I-405 S.

A little unexpected collapse. It's not expected to delay the reopening of the freeway Monday morning (link (http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/Carmageddon-405-Freeway-No-Major-Problems-171921781.html)).


http://media.nbcbayarea.com/images/collapsedportion.jpg

A little unexpected collapse. It's not expected to delay the reopening of the freeway Monday morning

Wow- that's a big chunk of concrete to collapse (unexpectedly!).

I flew into BUR yesterday around lunchtime and noticed how empty the 405 was in Sherman Oaks; good luck with the rest of the weekend!

Update:

NBC News (http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/Carmageddon-II-405-Freeway-Traffic-172010871.html):
Officials are hoping for an early reopening of the 405 Freeway between the Ventura and Santa Monica freeways. Officials will provide details on the status of the $1 billion freeway and bridge widening project. The freeway was expected to be reopened at 5 a.m. on Monday.

Demolition of the remaining support columns for the old Mulholland Drive bridge was nearly complete by 10 a.m., while large amounts of concrete and steel debris remained on the hillsides to be removed.

Work crews had already begun restriping lanes and tree-trimming crews have taken advantage of the closure to cut tree branches -- cutting down a seven-week backlog of maintenance in 48 hours, Caltrans officials said.

I had to drive to Hollywood from Orange County today. I took the 405 to the 110 to 10, and then surface streets up to Sunset Blvd. The 405 and 10 were fine, but the 110 was bumper-to-bumper -- it took me nearly two hours to complete what is normally a one-hour ride on a Sunday.

Live news conference: "The freeway will not open early; it will open as scheduled."

The freeway reopened early. By 9:30 p.m. it opened for northbound traffic. The southbound lanes reopened a couple hours later.