The 405 Freeway’s new express lanes are scheduled to open Friday, Dec. 1, allowing drivers to bypass traffic from the northern county line to Costa Mesa, and closing the book on major freeway projects in Orange County.
“From a mega project standpoint, I think this is it,” Orange County Transportation Authority CEO Darrell Johnson said. “This is the last large freeway project that we have planned.”
The $2.16 billion project to widen the 405 Freeway, adding two general lanes and two express lanes, one for each direction, left virtually no room for more expansion on the busy interstate that runs parallel to the coast.
The old carpool lanes are gone. For the 16-mile stretch of the project, two-lane express lanes take their place. People will have the option to pay a toll or carpool to use the express lanes, which require a FasTrak transponder.
Three-person carpools will always be free to use the lanes, but two-person carpools during rush hours will need to pay.
Paul Burner, who owns a detailing business and drives up and down the 405 every day with an employee, said he regularly used the old carpool lanes for his job, and is upset that he will now need to pay a toll during peak hours.
“Sometimes I have two, three different appointments in the day, so I have to get there quickly,” said Burner, who lives in Westminster. “I’m paying somebody to sit beside me to go from job to job, so time is money. So now, not only am I paying him for his time, to sit and go from job to job, now I have to pay for the toll as well.”
On average, drivers can expect to pay $3 to travel the entire way on express lanes.
The goal with express lanes, Johnson said, is to incentivize drivers to be more efficient, and will help reduce the growth of total miles traveled by motorists over time. At any hour of the day, drivers should expect to be going at the speed limit of 65 mph the entire length of the express lane, Johnson said.
Brian D. Taylor, a UCLA professor of…
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