Carmageddon to hit Los Alamitos Monday night for 2 weeks?
July 27, 2012 in Uncategorized By: Dave Emerson
(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:
- Cerritos east to Valley View south.
- Katella east to Valley View south.
- 605 south to 405 west to Palo Verde south (left) to Stearns east (left at first right) & right back on to the 405 east (right lane).
- Cerritos east to Knott, Beach, & Valley View south.
- Katella east to Knott, Beach, & Valley View south.
- Willow west to Woodruff South (my favorite)
- Route some of the southbound Seal Beach Blvd. traffic that wants to turn left onto the 405 further south to Westminster Blvd., then Westminster to the 405
- Close the northbound Seal Beach to southbound 405 & route traffic to Westminster for 2 weeks.
- Using the Long Beach, Harbor (110), or 405 Freeways instead of the 605 to get to the 405.
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.
There is a way to re-route the 54,000 cars off Katella by a u-turn to Willow toward Long Beach. Hopefully our city leaders have already anticipated the massive gridlock that will take place on Los Al blvd. Surely the police have notified the traffic control division to have cones/barricades ready to keep traffic moving smoothly through Los Alamitos.
If you live in Rossmoor, Old Dutch, Highlands dust off your bike/walking shoes. You can also call to give suggestions to city hall at 562 431-3538. Or leave a message for Mayor Edgar or your favorite Traffic Commissioner.
Get Dean Grose out there. He is good at directing traffic.
CalTrans closed the transition road from the 605 South to the 405 South as promised at 10:07 last night and as of 6:45 this morning things weren’t looking that bad. . . yet.
Sigalert.com has an incident square indicating the closure. . . but the square’s on the 405, not the 605. They got it right on the text, however. . . provided you hover over the square on the 405.
On the other hand, neither Google Maps nor MapQuest nor Yahoo Maps know of the closure and at this point all three are still routing traffic onto the closed connector road. Apparently OCTD neglected to notify them.
Incidentally, for those of you still using MapQuest and Yahoo Maps, only Google Maps gave estimated time in current traffic as well as in no traffic. Even if they did steer you onto a closed transition road.
Stay tuned. And, if you venture out onto or past Los Alamitos Blvd. or the 605 southbound from Katella today, let us know what you see when.
Today should be the worst as people make adjustments.
Stay tuned.
Los Alamitos Blvd. southbound is now backing up at Lampson and that left turn onto the 405 sure doesn’t look like fun, but Rossmoor and Rossmoor Highlands residents can still get to Ralphs or Vons and back without resorting to bicycles, razor scooters or, heaven help us, shoe leather.
I wouldn’t want to be heading west on Katella from the 605 right now either. . . but that’s always a parking lot at 8 on weekdays. Not sure how much worse it can get. . . . The island construction on Katella this spring set the bar, & I’m guessing the next two weeks will surpass it.
Looks like it’s going to be the evening rush hour that slams us.
Stay tuned. . . and keep that razor scooter in the trunk for back-up
Per the channel 4 news the traffic is backed up for a mile at Katella right now. They had a camera in a car and the reporter was exiting to find out the best way to go and will report back later.
I can’t figure out why it wasn’t bad this am. Guess most of the traffic is going North in the am South in the pm
They interviewed drivers who said they would be getting off at Katella tomorrow.
Took the 605 South to Katella into Los Alamitos a little after 5:00 this afternoon. The freeway appeared to be backing up after Katella, but we had no problem getting off at Katella and going east to Los Al Blvd., other than an accident that slowed Katella.
Took the 605 South to Katella a little after 5:00 with no big problems. Traffic was backing up on the 605 just after Katella, which would be over a mile to the closed conector.
Traffic also wasn’t that awful on Katella to Los Al Blvd.
We’ll see what tomorrow brings.
Dave E here. Looks like we’ve lost the “title” feature on our comments, so for now I suggest you include the topic as part of your name.
This just in from OCTD:
The SB I-605 / SB I-405 connector will reopen by 7 a.m. this Saturday1. After working around the clock for the last 12 days crews will be reopening the connector to commuters three days ahead of schedule.
Cue the “Hallelujah Chorus,” . . . . but only briefly, because in about ten days the Los Al/Seal Beach Blvd. bridge over the 405 will be reduced to one lane in each direction. . . FOR 11 MONTHS!!
Then it goes to two lanes in each direction FOR ANOTHER 12 MONTHS.
If this troubles you, you may want to contact your favorite Council Member. Murph and I seemed to be the only people at last night’s Traffic Commission Meeting that were all that concerned about it, and nobody seemed interested in exploring the alternatives we suggested.
Instead, we were directed to a meeting this morning at Rush Park Auditorium.
Turns out the meeting’s actually scheduled for next Thursday, August 16, 10 to 11:30 a.m. at the Rush Park Auditorium, 3021 Blume Dr. in Rossmoor. If you wish to attend that meeting, call or e-mail Madison Chetwood at 949-337-4288 or wccproject@octa.net.
You might also want to e-mail her your concerns about the closure and the need to explore other alternatives to expedite the construction and possibly utilize the middle lane as a controlled second lane with signals to change direction and close it when emergency vehicles are approaching.
No matter what they do, it’s going to be a challenge, so playn your alternate routes now. OCTA’s held community outreach & discussed and studied this for years, and there’s no good solution. I just want to be sure all options have been fully explored.
Hopefully I’ll be wrong on this one, too (see original post above). . . but I don’t think so this time!
Thank you Dave, and Richard Murphy for trying to make life better for the residents of Los al. I am not looking forward to the SB bridge mess. It seems that everwhere you turn there is on going slow downs. It’s never ending.