Commuters may want to find another way home this weekend as three lanes of the northbound 405 Freeway in the Sepulveda Pass area will be closed until Monday morning.
The 55-hour lane reduction will allow for the paving of a future high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lane and realignment of the 405 as part of the billion-dollar I-405 Sepulveda Pass Improvements Project, Metro officials said.
This portion of the project was scheduled to be completed in December.
"We’re moving as quickly as we can," said Dave Sotero, Metro spokesman. "We have to have a balance between working at night and upsetting residents that are trying to sleep and working during the day and upsetting motorists trying to get to work.
"There’s no easy way to build this project. It’s in a very tight corridor in a heavily congested urban area, but we’re doing what we can."
Three lanes between Montana Avenue and Getty Center Drive will close at 10 p.m. Friday until 5 a.m. Monday. Two lanes will remain open but with anticipated delays.
All northbound lanes in the 2.4-mile stretch will be closed Saturday from 1 a.m. to 6 a.m., Sunday from 2 a.m. to 7 a.m., and Monday from 12 a.m. to 5 a.m.
Sepulveda Boulevard's two northbound lanes will be completely open, and drivers may use that as an alternate route. All southbound lanes of the 405 will remain open.
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The northbound Getty Center Drive, Moraga Drive and Sunset Boulevard on-ramps will be closed, while the northbound Montana Avenue off-ramps will be closed through the weekend.
If drivers need to exit the 405 between Montana and Moraga avenues, they can take the Wilshire exit and take Sepulveda Boulevard northbound.
If drivers need to enter the 405 between Montana Avenue and Getty Center Drive, they can take Sepulveda Boulevard and enter at Wilshire Boulevard to the south or Skirball Center Drive to the north.
Westside drivers are dreading another round of closures, which inevitably force traffic onto surface streets along the freeway.
"I know some of my neighbors have been moving out because of the traffic on Barrington (Avenue)," said resident Kasha Wasiak.
Although the weekend weather is forecasted to be dry, the closures will shift by one week if rain falls.
Drivers should prepare for additional closures to follow as the southbound ramp to westbound Wilshire Boulevard will be closed March 8 to 22 for demolition of the existing off-ramp.
Construction to ease traffic on the 405 Freeway is scheduled to be complete by the middle of 2014.
Metro's map of this weekend's closures is pictured below.
