The 405 freeway as it passes through Seal Beach is one of the most highly travelled intersections in Southern California. It’s an intersection because three freeways meet here and bring a host of regional traffic through the area. Those freeways are the 405, 605, and 22. The Orange County Transportation Authority s constructing the West County Connectors) project. This project adds carpool connectors between those freeways. The project also tears down and replaces the 7th Street, Valley View, and Seal Beach Boulevard bridges. The construction can be problematic and cause delays while in progress, but when complete will help move traffic through the area more efficiently.
With any project of this magnitude OCTA will produce an Environmental Impact Report that seeks to mitigate environmental impacts of the project. The EIR is scheduled to be released by OCTA in May of this year. After release of the EIR the public has 45 days to comment on the document. OCTA will then address the comments and finalize the document.
As the review period approaches a public meeting will be hosted at the Seal Beach Tennis Center to discuss the project and how to comment to the EIR. However, a meeting date has not been set.
Seal Beach officials are asking residents to contact the city if they have ideas on how to protect Almond Avenue and College Park East. Within the Environmental Impact Report, OCTA is looking at three alternatives to widen the freeway. The alternatives are as follows:
• Alternative 1: Add One General-Purpose Lane in Each Direction. This alternative adds a single GP lane in each direction from Euclid Street to the I-605 interchange, including interchange improvements, and widens the existing high-occupancy vehicle lane in each direction
• Alternative 2: Add Two GP Lanes in Each Direction. This alternative adds two GP lanes (increasing the GP-lane count from four to six) in each direction from Euclid Street to the I-605 interchange, including interchange improvements, and widens the existing HOV lane in each direction.
• Alternative 3: Express Lane Alternative. This alternative adds both.
