I-405 Project Update: New, higher capacity on-ramp opens near Skirball Center

by ,
New Skirball Southbound Onramp

Newly built Skirball Southbound 405 Onramp opened Feb. 3, 2013.

 

Marking a new milestone for the I-405 Improvements Project, contractors on Sunday opened a brand new I-405 onramp south of Skirball Drive in the Sepulveda Pass.

The new onramp, accessible on Sepulveda Boulevard for drivers heading southbound on the I-405, is now 2,000 feet south of the Skirball Bridge, and is one of the key roadway improvements in this billion dollar freeway widening project.

Over the weekend, work crews completed traffic reconfiguration to open the new ramp, and at the same time permanently closed the existing freeway onramp on Skirball Center Drive Bridge. That ramp will later be torn down. The new southbound off-ramp is still under construction and expected to be complete later this year.

There were two main reasons the ramp was moved further south on Sepulveda. First, the project team sought to eliminate a traffic choke point on Skirball Center Drive bridge resulting from the previous placement of two traffic signals within very close proximity of each other. Second, they wanted to help keep north/south traffic moving along Sepulveda Boulevard.

Construction crews build the new ramp with greater capacity to accommodate motorists entering the freeway

The onramp during earlier construction. The new ramp has greater capacity to accommodate vehicles entering the southbound I-405.

Anyone who has driven in this area of the pass knows that navigating both traffic signals could be quite lengthy, adding to congestion and delays.

Under the new configuration, cars will be able to travel more quickly and efficiently on Skirball Drive and Sepulveda, also due to improved signal timing at the intersection.

Here are a few other benefits of the relocated southbound on-and off-ramps near Skirball:

  • Greater ramp storage capacity for vehicles entering and exiting the I-405 freeway.
  • Dedicated turn-lanes on Sepulveda Boulevard for cars entering and exiting the freeway.
  • New bike routes on Sepulveda Boulevard between Skirball Center Drive and the new southbound on- and off-ramps.
  • Simpler design of the Sepulveda Boulevard/Skirball Center Drive intersection, resulting in a safer intersection.

Meanwhile, contractor work to reconstruct the entire Skirball Center Drive Bridge continues. This bridge, along with the Mulholland and Sunset Bridges, have had to be demolished and rebuilt as part of freeway lane widening to accommodate an extra lane of traffic for high-occupancy vehicles on the northbound 405. The Skirball bridge’s new columns have now been built, and crews are currently building the bridge’s abutments. The entire bridge should be finished in 2013.

 

Categories: Projects, Transportation News

Tagged as:

4 replies ›

  2. Sepulveda blvd. is designated as an official bike route by the MTA. This designation leads cyclists to believe that it is a safe route. It is far from safe because the bike lane starts and stops unexpectedly putting the cyclist in a lane with speeding cars when they least expect it. The city should remove the designation of Bike Route from the Sepulveda Pass until it is a complete route. And Jose, speeding is a crime. Also Jose, cyclists have the same rights to use any public road that a motorist has.

  3. bikes should not be allowed on sepuvelda blvd, lets use some common sense. Its all we need more cops giving tickets instead of fighting crime.

  4. Haven’t seen any new bike lanes yet! This opening of the new ramp before Sepulveda is reconfigured actually puts bike commuters at much greater risk. Bike riders already have to deal with high-speed traffic on Sepulveda (and I mean HIGH SPEED with no enforcement by LAPD…EVER). Now all the traffic that once got on the freeway at the Skirball bridge will be screaming down the hill to the new on-ramp. But I guess further endangering cyclists is o.k. with the MTA.