The worst is over on the southbound San Diego Freeway between Sunset Boulevard and the Santa Monica Freeway. After more than a year of orange cones and restricted flow that really mucked things up, the new lanes are partially open. It will be awhile before the new diamond lane is ready, but traffic congestion has been blessedly light the last few days. Further south on the 405 though, early morning is going to stay bad for awhile. The entire freeway was closed from 1 to 5 am today between Manchester and the 105 freeway, and the southbound side is expected to be shut down Thursday morning from Jefferson Blvd. to Howard Hughes Parkway. It's all part of the project to connect the southbound HOV lane from the Valley to Orange County and add a new auxiliary lane on the right to cut down on on- and off-ramp disruptions. Crews also are rebuilding the sound walls that were just torn down so the roadway could be widened.

Photo: LA Observed