The 405 Freeway will undergo a three-year, $1 billion expansion project, beginning Tuesday, that will add a new carpool lane in the stretch between the 10 Freeway and the 101 Freeway.
The I-405 Sepulveda Pass Widening Project will create a 10-mile northbound lane to accommodate carpoolers, buses and other multiple-passenger vehicles. About 15 percent of the vehicles that travel the route daily contain multiple passengers, according to Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority spokesman Dave Sotero.
“The extra (high-occupancy vehicle) lane can absorb these vehicles, which will help improve and more evenly distribute traffic flows across all freeway lanes,” he said.
The northbound stretch of the Sepulveda Pass is the last stretch of highway to receive a carpool lane.
The project will also reconstruct the Sunset, Sepulveda and Skirball bridges and realign 27 on- and off- ramps. It is scheduled for completion in 2013.
Although the immediate impact of the construction project on UCLA’s commuters is not yet known, Sotero said there will be a “net benefit” for traffic flow in all lanes once the project is complete. Studies show that vehicles can save one minute per mile by using the carpool lane during peak commute periods.
To avoid congestion from construction, L.A. Metro suggests finding carpool partners and finding alternate routes in daily commutes.
Dan Raysh, a second-year business and economics student that commutes to campus, said last quarter traffic on the 405 often tripled his commute time, he said.
However, he said he thinks the expansion will not help congestion in the long run.
“An extra lane will cause more people to use the freeway,” Raysh said. “It’s a temporary change at best.”
Geography professor Antony Orme agreed that widening the freeway will not solve the problem either.
“It will be all right for a few years, but it will get clogged up again,” Orme said. “Eventually we’re just going to have renewed gridlock.”
Orme said the increased traffic on the freeway will come from new developments in the area. “They’re always trying to build the freeway for the decade passed,” he added.
Orme said the solution he’d like to see, although costly, is an increased push for mass transit in Los Angeles. He said there is no easy solution to the problem of congestion.