Los Angeles is a city in motion, but this July parts of the city will come to a standstill as a popular road becomes closed for construction.

The city is known to be a gateway to beaches and fun, with trendy attractions like Disney Land and Santa Monica’s eclectic beach boardwalk. However, reaching these destinations this summer may become problematic due to the shutting down of the 405 FWY.

For more than 2 days, ten miles of Freeway 405 will be shut down in mid-July. This will be due to a project of tearing down a bridge in order to widen the expressway and add carpool lanes. Officials are anticipating surrounding streets to swell up as people try to find alternate routes. However, these local streets do not have the capacity to accommodate extra traffic that will be diverted from road closures. Massive delays are forecasted for segments of Los Angeles roadways, bringing worries to transportation officials over nightmarish traffic and angry commuters.

A warning message is given by L.A. County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky , “Stay the heck out of here.” He said he knows every shortcut in the area and that “not one of them is going to work.”

“There’s gridlock on the 405 virtually any time of the day, but particularly during the rush hour, and if you think it’s bad now, let me just make something absolutely clear: On July 16 and 17, it will be an absolute nightmare,” said Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

Los Angeles transportation officials say that closing these parts of the road is unavoidable, but they hope the new repairs and the carpool lane will speed up commute times and makeup for the two days of awful traffic.

Some commuters are upset and don’t feel that it’s fair that all this construction chaos is just to create carpool lanes, while others believe that life will go on and the traffic nightmare will be over.

For now, our advice for California Dreamers is to ditch the car, and enjoy LA with a casual walk.

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Source: LA Times