transportation

With the massive 405 Project now two-thirds complete, officials have unveiled a staggered endgame schedule which calls for major portions of the project to wrap up this year while work on one troublesome segment continues into 2014. The delay involves the project’s middle segment—chiefly in the area around Montana Avenue and Church Lane—where utility relocations and the necessity of shifting Sepulveda Boulevard have proved vastly more time-consuming than expected. Overall, unforeseen utility relocation issues have not only eaten up valuable time but also have driven up the cost of building the project, according to a briefing presented this week to Metro’s…

Motorists, be forewarned: the northbound 405 Freeway will be a great place to avoid the first weekend in March. Three northbound lanes on the freeway will be closing for 55 straight hours between Montana Avenue and Getty Center Drive. In addition, the Getty Center Drive and Moraga Drive northbound on-ramps will be closed, as will the northbound Montana and Moraga off-ramps. Despite the length of the closure, this is no “mini Carmageddon”—although officials stress that drivers should plan alternate routes through the area to avoid major backups. “We are concerned with daytime traffic,” said Kasey Shuda, construction relations manager for…

(Seems like this problem might last longer than the notice below indicates since traffic will be diverted to the 405.)Sepulveda Boulevard will be closed until around 8:30 a.m. between Mountaingate Drive and Skirball Center Drive because a piece of heavy equipment fell during on the 405 Construction Project overnight, says Dave Sotero of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. No one was hurt, Sotero says, but the contractor must now get the equipment out of the way…From: http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_22564866/traffic-alert-sepulveda-blvd-near-skirball-center-closed

Sepulveda Pass Tunnel: 1935 An earlier post (Dec. 27) on this blog noted that the MTA has various long-range plans for dealing with the traffic bottleneck through the Sepulveda Pass, just north and slightly west of UCLA.  Readers will not have to be reminded of the fact that the current project of widening the 405 and replacing bridges has been the source of major traffic headaches. The LA Daily News carries an updated story about the MTA’s plans which range from modest to a very expensive tunnel which would carry both rail and cars.  You can read about these plans…

Henry Barnes As you enter UCLA from the south on Westwood Boulevard, you come across this pedestrian crossing in which all traffic lights turn red for cars and pedestrians can walk diagonally as well as straight across the street.  (There is another such crossing a few blocks away also in Westwood.)  The system is called a “Barnes Dance” after the traffic engineer who pushed for its use, Henry Barnes.  Yours truly can remember when the Barnes Dance was introduced in New York City in the 1950s (where apparently now there is only one such intersection left).  In any event, a…

The Westwood-Century City Patch brings us this news of the I-405 project near UCLA: The investigations that resulted in the denial of 71 percent of damage claims related to the I-405 Sepulveda Pass Improvements Project have been handled with careful attention to documentation and responsibility, according to a spokesman for Kiewit Construction, the main contractor for the $1 billion project.  Last week, the Metro Board of Directors approved Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky’s motion calling for the inspector general’s office to audit Kiewit’s claims since the project began in 2009. Dan Kulka, community relations manager for Kiewit, said 90…

Yours truly noticed that on Sunset Boulevard near where it crosses the 405, there is a blinking sign that says that Sunset will be shut down on the evenings of December 7 and 8 from 9 PM to 6 AM.  Bad news for late travelers to or from UCLA.

If traffic were not bad enough near UCLA given the problems on Sepulveda Boulevard this week (see our earlier posting), now comes this: The Sunset bridge will be closed tonight 10 pm until 6 am tomorrow.  (It also happened last night but yours truly did not get the word until this morning.) While you are stuck, you can think about happier traffic days:[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n77NxU0CHPw?feature=player_detailpage]