405 closures near LAX begin Monday night for the next 3 weeks
LOS ANGELES (FOX 11 / CNS) - Fifteen full nights of partial and full closures on the San Diego (405) Freeway near Los Angeles International Airport will begin Monday night to allow construction of a bridge for the Crenshaw/LAX Line light rail project.
The closures will feature overnight full or partial directional closures from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. Monday to Friday, although the freeway will be fully open during the weekends.
Crews will be preparing to work on the final stage of a new bridge for the transit project, which will eventually link the Expo line to LAX in late 2019.
"It's great, because maybe we can get rid of more cars - less cars on the road, less traffic," said Linda Abrams.
The bridge runs perpendicular to the 405 on Florence and La Cienega, that's why crews have to partially close the freeway during certain construction stages.
"It doesn't matter what time you travel on the 405 - it's gonna be - you just have to prepare," said driver Singer Nip.
Preparation this week for many means being aware of detours since 405 northbound lanes between Century and La Tijera Boulevards will be closed between 10:00 at night and 5:00 in the morning.
Different parts of the 405 will shut down the same hours the following two weeks for workers to complete others parts of the bridge.
Despite some anxiety, Metro says they don't expect traffic to be worse, and, they don't expect the light rail project to make traffic drastically better either.
"We're not expecting traffic madness at all...there is no "silver bullet" for traffic in Los Angeles - we're going to have traffic. The key is to provide better transportation options," said Anthony Crump, the Community and Construction Relations Manager.
The scheduled closures include:
Northbound detours including getting off on Manchester, making a left, then a right on La Cienega, left on Centinella and left on La Tijera until you hit the freeway.
Southbound detours including exiting La Cienega and Florence, going straight through the intersection on La Cienega for about a block, and making a left onto the 405 freeway right after Manchester.
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