Did You Know?

Learn more about the I-405 Sepulveda Pass Improvements Project

2012

December 10

What Did Caltrans Crews Accomplish During Carmageddon II?

Caltrans reasoned that sprucing up the freeway while the Mulholland Dr Bridge was demolished would cause less inconvenience to drivers.

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July 20

Why would someone mix boys and bulldozers?

A pack of 10-year-old Cub Scouts receive a close-up view of heavy construction.

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June 19

How are California's highways named?

Naming a highway after a person requires a circuitous route.

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June 18

Why Are the North Side Girders a Milestone?

A bridge's roadway is built on girders.

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March 13

Carpooling During Wilshire Loops

Metro Commute Services team can help employers and their employees cope with the Wilshire ramp closures.

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February 28

Why So Many BMPs Through the Sepulveda Pass?

The BMPs will treat the additional runoff created by the wider freeway and bring the storm water treatment capabilities up to current standards.

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February 17

Why Will an Off-Ramp Disappear?

A Westside landmark will vanish when the I-405 Sepulveda Pass Improvements Project finishes its work.

 

2011

December 28

Why Do Back-Up Alarms Have To Be Noisy?

When they are working as intended, back-up alarms—in common with some forms of modern music—broadcast annoying sounds for several blocks. The I-405 Sepulveda Pass Improvements Project has been trying to do something about this.

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December 7

Why Is No One Working Where Traffic Is Restricted?

Although it might seem random to the harassed driver, traffic control in a construction area—especially an area as congested as the Sepulveda Pass—is more science than art.

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November 8

Why Is the Montana/Sepulveda Intersection Significant?

Sitting a stone's throw east of the I-405 freeway and the Brentwood Glen community, the Montana Av/Sepulveda Bl intersection continues its transformation by the I-405 Sepulveda Pass Improvements Project.

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July 1

Mulholland Community Meeting

On Thursday, June 23, the I-405 Sepulveda Pass Improvements Project hosted a community meeting on the July 16-17 Mulholland Bridge Demolition and the resulting full closure of the I-405 in the Sepulveda Pass.

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March 15

How Do You Explain Pile Driving to First-Graders?

I-405 Sepulveda Pass Improvements Project team stood before 35 high-energy kindergarten and first-graders to demonstrate how bridges are built.

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March 11

How Do You Drill Under a River of Traffic?

On a typical Wednesday in February 2009, over 120,000 vehicles flow east and west past Veteran Av on Wilshire Bl.

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January 19

How Is a Giant Freeway Landscaped?

Long before she became a landscape architect, decades before she landscaped schools, ports, airports and parks, Lynn Capouya gathered discarded Christmas trees.

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January 07

How to Build Walls Longer Than an Aircraft Carrier

Every day they watch the I-405 highway curve away from them below while they work to hold back a hillside.

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January 06

How Mulholland Dr Bridge Was Constructed

The main portion of Mulholland Dr-westward from the Cahuenga Pass in Hollywood past the Sepulveda Pass-opened in 1924 under a different name: the Mulholland Highway.

 

2010

December 20

How to Crush Bridges into Roadways

Is there a way to prevent thousands of tons of concrete and asphalt from being dumped into landfills, you might ask. There is.

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October 06

Moving the spaghetti of utilities under Sepulveda Bl

Bonnie Verdin loves spaghetti, although she wishes she saw less of it during her work day.

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September 10 

CAC Meeting

The August 26 Community Advisory Committee (CAC) meeting focused on committee requests that have been resolved and those still pending.

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August 4 

Reduce Construction Material Sent to Landfills

The I-405 Sepulveda Pass Improvements Project, has received approval to operate material-crushing sites within the project boundaries.

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July 20

How Crews Lay K-Rail

Mostly—it’s invisible, part of the Southern California highway landscape, much like bumper stickers and lane changes without turn signals—but if you begin to look, K-Rail seems to be everywhere.

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June 16

Project examines a freeway area that never carries cars

Commuters and neighbors can see that the I-405 uses a sophisticated system of lanes, ramps and signage to move hundreds of thousands of vehicles each day.

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June 2

Why clear and grub precedes other preconstruction work

Clear and grub” appears in multiple Construction Notices for the I-405 Sepulveda Pass Improvements Project, and although the term may sound like the name of an unsuccessful County Western duo....

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May 27

Quarterly Community Meeting Described Traffic Flow Modifications

Before an audience of approximately 50 attendees, the I-405 Sepulveda Pass Improvements Project team used its May 20 Quarterly Community Meeting to provide an update on the....

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April 27

Scale of widening project apparent in quantities required to complete it

The I-405 Sepulveda Pass Improvements Project is a large project by any measure: its length, its cost, its complexity.

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April 20

Artists present aesthetic designs for Sepulveda Bl walls

Before an audience of approximately a dozen attendees, as well as several Community Advisory Committee (CAC) members, the two artists responsible for the aesthetic designs for the 1720/1730 walls on Sepulveda Bl presented their initial concepts April 8.

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April 13

How you keep traffic moving through a complex highway project

Brandon Schissel, Maintenance of Traffic Lead for the I-405 Sepulveda Pass Improvements Project, calculates how to maintain traffic flow while supporting an aggressive construction schedule, a considerable challenge when working on one of the nation’s busiest highways.

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April 7

How artists soften a mass of concrete

For years, pedestrians, bicyclists and drivers have passed the retaining walls on either side of Homedale Dr, east of the I-405 Freeway, and seen a mass of flat concrete.

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April 2

Brett Barnett, has highway construction in his veins

Brett Barnett, one of three segment managers for the I-405 Sepulveda Pass Improvements Project, has highway construction in his veins. Well, at least in his family tree.

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March 30

How a freeway is cut down to size

Many steps are required before the new section of the I-405 can be attached to the current section.

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March 19

Kay Greeley, Arborist for the Project is also a tree hugger

Kay Greeley, a certified arborist, as well as a civil engineer and landscape architect, led the tree survey process that mapped the 5,600 trees and “significant foliage” along the I-405 Sepulveda Pass Improvements Project.

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March 19

Variety of signage is used for traffic control and safety

The construction team widening the I-405 has been using a variety of signage devices to control traffic and increase worker safety. Here are three frequently used tools.

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March 17

Caltrans construction manager has big responsibilities

Allan Tanjuaquio’s title on the $1.03 billion I-405 Sepulveda Basin Improvements Project, Construction Manager, means he is responsible for all construction and a large portion of quality assurance.

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March 4

CAC meeting discussed landscaping and the Sunset Bl bridge demolition

The fourth Community Advisory Committee (CAC) meeting, held February 25 at the project office, focused on the I-405 Sepulveda Pass Improvements Project’s landscaping plan.

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March 1

High technology used for pre-construction activities

Recent photographs describe some of the pre-construction activities required as part of the I-405 Sepulveda Pass Improvements Project.