Sepulveda Tunnel to Close 6 Weeks for Road Repairs

The Sepulveda Boulevard tunnel, one of the main links between the Los Angeles Basin and the San Fernando Valley, will be closed for up to six weeks starting Saturday because of road repairs, officials announced Tuesday.

The closure is expected to cause traffic jams on suggested alternate routes such as the adjacent San Diego Freeway, Los Angeles officials said.

“It’s going to be a mess, but we have to live with it,” said Los Angeles City Councilman Marvin Braude at a press conference in front of the tunnel. Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky said, “It will be difficult, but we have to do it for safety’s sake.”

Repeated repaving inside the tunnel, which runs beneath Mullholland Drive, has raised the level of the road so much that the tops of tall vehicles such as trucks have been scraping the sloping roof of the tunnel, the councilmen said.

The councilmen said that to avoid the low portions of the roof, drivers of those vehicles maneuver dangerously toward the center of the tunnel, into the path of oncoming traffic.

The tunnel will be shut down until Sept. 30 while workers reduce the height of the pavement, officials said. In addition, Sepulveda Boulevard between Rimerton Road and Royal Hills Drive will be closed, except to those who live between Royal Hills Drive and the tunnel, the councilmen said.

Commuters going downtown on Sepulveda on Tuesday got a preview of things to come. Traffic was backed up for several miles as Caltrans personnel handed them flyers advising use of the San Diego Freeway, Beverly Glen Boulevard or Coldwater Canyon Avenue during the closure.

Temporary Changes

The flyers said traffic would be directed away from the construction area. Temporary changes, including restrictions on parking and turning and changes in signal timing, also will be instituted, officials said.

Motorists were advised to use public transportation or car pools, and to allow additional time for their trips.

Teams of Los Angeles Department of Traffic engineers, officers and helicopters will respond to emergencies and will fine-tune traffic controls, the flyers said.

Commuters are already dreading the closure. “It’s going to be pure hell,” said Mary Nakae, 24, a Canoga Park resident who recently started taking the San Diego Freeway to Brentwood to avoid Sepulveda Boulevard traffic on the way to work.

“The wait is already long enough on the freeway, and it’s going to be worse,” said Nakae, a media planner for an advertising agency. “I’d try to find another way, but how creative can you get?”

Debbie Baxter, a controller at a Brentwood public relations agency, said she has already thought of a way to deal with the added inconvenience on the San Diego Freeway: “Just turn the stereo louder, and honk the horn.”