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Mike Barbour, the project manager on the big 405 freeway job from the Westside through Sepulveda Pass to the Valley, will take questions on the Metro website from noon to 1 p.m. on Wednesday. They are already inviting advance questions. From his advance remarks:
The payoff for three years of inconvenience—we are scheduled to complete the project in 2013—will be more than the carpool lane to be added to the northbound lanes. The completed project will reduce commuting time, reduce air pollution and energy usage and fill a gap in the region’s carpooling facilities. Multiple on- and off-ramps will be safer and wider, which will reduce ramp traffic flooding neighboring intersections....To accommodate the new northbound carpool lane, however, the Sunset, Skirball and Mulholland bridges must be lengthened. Added benefits of rebuilding the bridges will be their upgrading and widening and improving their connecting ramps: The Sunset Boulevard Bridge, for example, is almost 50 years old.
To reduce traffic delays, the project team has adapted construction to this congested region. That is why the three bridges will be rebuilt in stages, rather than being closed completely for months. That is why Sepulveda Boulevard will not be closed at the same time the I-405 will be closed. That is why Church Lane at Sepulveda Boulevard has been widened.
Barbour is the Iraq War veteran who we posted about in January: It takes a military man to fix the 405 freeway mess.