Following four years of construction, all bridges connecting carpool lanes on State Route 22 (SR-22), Interstate 405 (I-405), and Interstate 605 (I-605) are now open. Drivers can travel in the carpool lanes from the Garden Grove Freeway (SR-22) to the San Diego Freeway (I-405) to the San Gabriel Freeway (I-605), and the reverse, without ever having to exit the carpool lanes.
The $297 million project by OCTA, in cooperation with Caltrans, allows for seamless transitions among the three freeways. It eliminates merging and weaving, which are major causes of traffic congestion. In addition, the project adds a second carpool on I-405 in both directions between SR-22 and I-605. The I-405 near the border of Orange and Los Angeles counties carries approximately 370,000 cars a day.
The six-mile project runs through Garden Grove, Westminster, Seal Beach, Los Alamitos, Long Beach and Rossmoor.
The first connector opened in November. The remainder opened last week on an accelerated schedule due to the potential of rain-caused delays. Intermittent nighttime closures will continue through February in order for crews to conduct clean-up activities and de-mobilize equipment throughout the project area.
For an updated list of closures and detours, please visit www.octa.net/wccdetourmap.
