With the news that the 405 freeway in the Sepulveda Pass will be entirely closed the weekend of July 16-17 to tear down the southside of the Mulholland Bridge, the Metro team working on the project sent over more details about the bridge:
The Mulholland Drive Bridge will be the third bridge demolished and reconstructed to accommodate the widening of the I-405 freeway and to add a high-occupancy vehicle lane through the Sepulveda Pass. The Mulholland Drive Bridge is scheduled to be demolished and reconstructed after the Skirball Center Drive Bridge. When completed, the expanded and seismically enhanced Mulholland Center Drive Bridge will be widened by approximately 10 feet.
Demolition activities will take place over a weekend for 53 consecutive hours, resulting in the full freeway closure of the I-405 freeway. The Mulholland Drive Bridge and both directions of the I-405 freeway will be closed roughly between US 101 freeway to the Getty Center Drive ramps. Some intermittent closures of the Mulholland Drive Bridge will occur during the preparation for bridge demolition and bridge reconstruction. Access will always be provided for emergency responders.
Detour maps and alternative routes will be available to encourage the traveling public to avoid this area completely during the weekend of the bridge demolition. Sepulveda Boulevard will be used as a detour route during the weekend of the Mulholland Bridge demolition. To reduce the work’s effects on local traffic flow, the Mulholland Drive Bridge demolition and reconstruction will be conducted in two separate phases.
The southern side of the bridge will be demolished first. That will be followed by approximately 11 months of south side bridge reconstruction. Upon completion, the northern side of the bridge will be demolished and rebuilt in the same manner. During reconstruction, the Mulholland Drive Bridge will accommodate one lane of traffic in each direction. The new traffic configurations for the Mulholland Drive Bridge will go into effect in June 2011. Implementing these new traffic configurations and isolating the work zone will help the contractor prepare for demolition. The contractor will be:
•Surveying the existing bridge’s condition
•Removing false deck from inside the bridge
•Installing temporary traffic signals and signs
•Protecting existing utilities
We anticipate demolition to occur July 16 (beginning at midnight) through Sunday, July 17.
The I-405 project website (http://www.metro.net/projects/I-405/) will have the latest updates regarding the construction work activity.
Categories: Projects
One other issue I see is that if it were a BRT it would never get converted to rail unless the rails were pre-installed like they were in the Seattle downtown transit tunnel.
@Joel
I Agree. The only problem I see with a temporary BRT is that it has the chance of having the same fate as the original BRT was supposed to be along the 10. In other words, it would just be opened up to common traffic as an HOV lane due to political pressure.
I thought I read that Metro was not going to replace the Mulholland bridge (?) Given the relatively light traffic it sees, is this really necessary? Money being spent to “rebuild” this and other 405 overpasses, unless absolutely necessary, would be better spent building a BRT along the 405. A dedicated lane BRT will help tide us over until a rail line can be built through the pass.