All northbound and southbound lanes on the I-405 freeway were temporarily closed this morning and will be closed early Friday from midnight to 5 a.m. between the Valley View Street and Seal Beach Boulevard exits.
“The closure is needed to relocate overhead utility wires,” said Christina Byrne, community liaison for Orange County Transportation Authority. “It’s just not safe to do so with live traffic.”
While all lanes are closed, traffic will be rerouted to exit and drive down Westminster Boulevard to reconnect with the freeway at the next on-ramp.
The shut down is part of the West County Connectors project, which will lead to a year-long closure of the northbound I-405/westbound SR-22/Seventh Street connector, also known as the Seventh Street Bridge.
The bridge is used by many Cal State Long Beach students driving from the Orange County area.
Byrne said the closest estimate for full closure of the Seventh Street Bridge is “sometime in March, but we should know more in the next week or two.”
Mark Rudometkin, general manager of parking and transportation services at CSULB, said, “[I’ve] been checking daily for a start date for the [Seventh Street Bridge] closure so we can inform students.”
Byrne said when the project is complete, the West County Connectors will have two elevated carpool connectors.
“The first will connect carpool lanes on the westbound SR-22 and the northbound I-405,” Byrne said. “The second, just north of the Seventh Street connector, will connect the I-405 and I-605 carpool lanes.”
Byrne said the reason the route needs to be closed is that the new carpool lane will connect the I-405. In addition, she said the I-605 is being built underneath the Seventh Street connector.
“Because the bridge is at a skew, or angle, and the columns aren’t located in the right places, we can’t keep it open like the Valley View Street Bridge and Seal Beach Boulevard Bridge,” Byrne said. “Those bridges can be reconstructed one half at a time, leaving the other half open for traffic.”
Byrne said the city of Long Beach received money from OCTA for measures meant to relieve some of the expected traffic woes associated with the Seventh Street Bridge.
The first involves “signal synchronization along the alternate route of Studebaker Road, so the driver will hit all green lights,” Byrne said. “The second is enhancements being made to the Palo Verde off-ramp.”
Freshman undeclared major Marilyn Leon said the closure will add an extra 10 minutes to her drive, and make her “wake up earlier to make it to school.”
Byrne said those who want to follow the West County Connector project can sign up for alerts at octa.net/emarketing/ems/email_signup.aspx.
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