(7/27/2012, Los Alamitos)CalTrans is completely shutting down the two lane connector from the 605 to the 405 South for about two weeks, beginning at 10:00 p.m. this Monday night, 7/30/2012.

Happy August, Los Alamitos!

That two-lane connector carries an average of 54,000 vehicles every day, and guess where those 54,000 vehicles are going to go?

I really, really hope I’m wrong, but if those drivers take the most logical of the 4 routes suggested by our beloved Orange County Transportation District, at least half of them will be showing up on Katella and Los Al Blvds.  (The other 3 routes take you out of your way to the east. Click here for OCTD’s map of alternate routes.)

I  don’t look forward to 28,000 vehicles a day being added to Katella and Los Al Blvd.

I have to ask, why on earth weren’t  additional alternates routes suggested?  For example:

1. Cerritos east to Valley View south.
2. Katella east to Valley View south.

I would have expected our officials and those from Seal Beach to be all over this.

I suspect they will be by Wednesday morning. [ad]

. . . so you thought the gridlock was only going be in London?

I guess NBC just found a new way to make us stay home and watch the Olympics!

Now the details, from OCTD:

The West County Connectors Project has announced that on Monday, July 30, at 10:00 p.m. crews will close the connector from the southbound 605 freeway to the southbound 405 freeway for approximately two weeks. The connector will remain closed to all traffic during this time and is expected to reopen by mid-August.

This connector must be reconstructed in order to accommodate the new HOV connector and additional lanes on the I-405 freeway.

Although this closure was originally scheduled for late 2012, the project team is accelerating work to begin this activity prior to the start of the Seal Beach Boulevard bridge reconstruction. Crews are expected to reopen the southbound 605 / southbound 405 connector in mid-August.

Project officials say the transition must be realigned in order to accommodate construction activities on the new 405/605 carpool connector. This closure is expected impact traffic on local surface streets.

Commuters are urged to use alternate routes or avoid the area for all non-essential trips for the duration of the two-week closure. The work is part of the $277-million effort that reopened the 7th Street Bridge earlier this summer.

Work is ongoing and more closures are planned to accommodate everything from bridge reconstruction and ramp refurbishment to realignment and restriping.

You can track the project at its website:  Main information website.

Shoulda planned the family vacation for the first half of August!

The good news is that the closure got moved up from the school year (and before OCTA starts rebuilding the Seal Beach Bridge later this year).

Kudos also are due whomever is responsible for Los Alamitos’ nicely upgraded website, where the closure is a top item.   They even upgraded the web address, to CityofLosAlamitos.org, a nice improvement over the old ci.los-alamitos.ca.us (which still forwards to the new site.)

Please note:  Only southbound 605 traffic will b affected; the connectors from the 405 to the 605 northbound will remain open.  So most of the congestion will be on Katella from the 605 to Los Al Blvd. and Los Al Blvd. south from Katella to already congested the left turn onto the 405 south.   Northbound Los Al should be relatively untouched.

I’m planning on taking Katella, Ball, or Lampson to Valley View, Knott, or Beach  if I need to head south from Los Al during peak traffic hours from July 31 until the connectors reopen.  Or just staying home and watching the Olympics.

Hopefully it won’t be as bad as I’m fearing.

As always, your comments, diplomatically expressed, are welcome.  Including your reporting and observations on alternate routes and how bad it really is.  You can even e-mail us your photos using the “contact us” link in the masthead.