Overnight 405 closure snarls Saturday morning traffic

Motorists on the northbound 405 Freeway probably wished they were someplace else early Saturday. Anyplace else.

Traffic on the heavily traveled freeway was backed up about eight-miles, from Santa Monica Boulevard to Manchester Avenue near Los Angeles International Airport, as work continued on repair and widening of the freeway.

All northbound lanes between Santa Monica and Wilshire boulevards were closed at 11 p.m. Friday. Two lanes were reopened at 9 a.m. Saturday, a third about 9:30 a.m., followed by the rest of the lanes shortly after 10 a.m., said Officer Ed Jacobs of the California Highway Patrol.

The northbound lanes will be closed again at the same location from 11 p.m. to 9 a.m. on May 17 and 18, officials said.

The 405 project, which includes completing the northbound HOV link between Orange County and the San Fernando Valley, has entailed building new onramps and offramps, demolishing and rebuilding three bridges and adding miles of walls to hold back earth or buffer freeway noise.

The project is expected to be substantially finished by mid-2014, a year later than initially anticipated.

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