Major milestone marks the beginning of the end of a four-year effort to reduce congestion and enhance safety along the busiest stretch of highway in the nation
ORANGE – The first link in a series of connectors will open next week allowing drivers to directly transition from the carpool lane on the southbound San Diego Freeway (I-405) to the carpool lane on the eastbound Garden Grove Freeway (SR-22).
The direct carpool connector is expected to open by 5 a.m. on Friday, Nov. 7. This major milestone for the West County Connectors project will alleviate the merging and weaving that was previously necessary for carpoolers to get from one freeway to the other.
Over the next few weeks, crews will finish restriping the freeway in order to accommodate the remaining new carpool connectors. Once the freeway is restriped, there will be two carpool lanes in both directions on the I-405, between the SR-22 and the San Gabriel River Freeway (I-605). The remaining carpool connectors are tentatively scheduled to open in early December.
“Opening this first connector is a tremendous step in helping to ease congestion and enhance safety on a stretch of freeway that is used daily by hundreds of thousands of drivers,” said OCTA Chairman Shawn Nelson, also the Chairman of Orange County Board of Supervisors. “We are looking forward to opening the remaining links and want to thank those who live, work and commute through this area for their continued patience the past four years.”
The $277 million West County Connectors project will improve traffic flow by directly connecting carpool lanes on the I-405, I-605 and SR-22. In addition, the project adds 6 miles of carpool lane on I-405 between SR-22 and I-605.
Nightly freeway and ramp closures will continue intermittently as crews work toward the project’s completion. For an updated list of nighttime closures, please visit www.octa.net/wccdetourmap.
