Gift to Commuters: Sepulveda Tunnel Reopens 8 Days Early

The Sepulveda Tunnel has reopened to traffic eight days ahead of schedule but not a day too soon for traffic-weary motorists and residents along neighboring routes, which absorbed many of the 28,000 cars rerouted each day by the monthlong closure, officials said.

“It will be a godsend to have it opened again,” said Los Angeles Police Officer Gary Wachtler, who handles traffic complaints for the department’s Valley Traffic Division.

The reopening Thursday afternoon did not immediately lighten traffic because most motorists thought that the tunnel was still closed, officials said. Chuck Ellis, spokesman for the Los Angeles Department of Public Works, said work crews put in extra effort to open the tunnel early so that traffic could return to normal.

“We’re real pleased with the fact that the contractors, instead of just taking the contract and saying, ‘We got this much time,’ realized there’s a lot of cars and it impacts on everybody’s drive to work,” Ellis said.

The heavily traveled tunnel was closed Aug. 19 for reconstruction of the roadway, which had risen so high because of past resurfacing that the tops of large trucks sometimes scraped the roof. Trucks often drove down the center of the roadway to avoid hitting the roof, creating a hazard for oncoming vehicles, officials said.

Workers also rebuilt the sidewalk and gutter along the west side of the tunnel, Ellis said.

The closure caused unusually long traffic delays in both directions of the San Diego Freeway, which runs parallel to Sepulveda Boulevard, and clogged alternative routes such as Beverly Glen Boulevard, Coldwater Canyon Avenue, Laurel Canyon Boulevard, Hayvenhurst Avenue and Woodcliff Road, Wachtler said.

He said police received several dozen complaints from residents angry about added congestion and speeding on their streets. He estimated that while the tunnel was closed, 80,000 to 100,000 cars traveled those streets during afternoon rush hours, contrasted with 50,000 to 60,000 cars before the closure.

“We issued 600 citations on those arteries just to get people to slow down,” Wachtler said. “It’s incredible how they can drive so fast and run so many stop signs.”

He said that under normal circumstances, officers patrolling those streets issue 80 to 100 tickets in the same period of time.

California Highway Patrol Sgt. Daniel Rodman said the tunnel closure added 20 minutes to his daily commute on the San Diego Freeway from Culver City, where he lives, to the Woodland Hills office where he works.

“It was a lot heavier all the way from Sunset Boulevard over the hill,” Rodman said. “I was leaving at 6:30 a.m. Normally I left at 7.”

Motorists driving south on the San Diego Freeway said morning rush-hour traffic frequently was congested as far north as Nordhoff Street during the closure.