Upcoming 405 closure could trigger a domino effect of gridlock

(From the latimes.com) Marcella and Richard Tyler may be in the path of a traffic hurricane many fear will whip around next weekend’s shutdown of the 405 Freeway, one of the most heavily traveled interstates in the nation. The couple’s Sherman Oaks neighborhood, near Sepulveda Boulevard, sits in an extended corridor between the San Fernando Valley and West Los Angeles most at risk of becoming clogged with motorists trying to skirt the 53-hour closure of the 405 for construction work.

“We believe the streets will be totally gridlocked. We don’t think we will be able to get out,” said Richard Tyler, who plans to hunker down at home during the disruption. “We even wonder how the mailman will get around.”

Whether “Carmageddon” will paralyze the Los Angeles Basin or turn into a Y2K-style bust as motorists heed warnings to stay off the road is anybody’s guess.

But under worst-case scenarios, transportation officials fear the closure could trigger a domino effect of gridlocked surface streets. Sepulveda Boulevard, which roughly parallels the 405, and other major thoroughfares on the Westside and in the San Fernando Valley, Malibu and Santa Monica could become cascading logjams.

The best options are to stick to other freeways or stay home, said Bruce Gillman, a Los Angeles Department of Transportation spokesman. “If people want to go out and drive, they could be putting themselves into a very frustrating situation.”

Among the most likely trouble spots, officials say, are the mostly two-lane north-south canyon roads connecting the Valley and western Los Angeles County. Those roads, which traverse affluent neighborhoods like Bel-Air, can bog down in normal weekend traffic.

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