Sections of 405 Freeway in Westminster to close overnight both this weekend and next

As a massive widening project continues, portions of the 405 Freeway that run through Westminster are scheduled to fully close overnight Friday, May 31, and Saturday, June 1, near Westminster Boulevard. Another closure is planned the following weekend, the Orange County Transportation Authority announced.

Starting at 10 p.m. Friday, northbound lanes between Westminster Boulevard and Springdale Street will be out of commission for about 10 hours. The southbound carpool lane and the two regular lanes next to it also will be closed, as will the Westminster Boulevard bridge and nearby freeway ramps.

On Saturday night, both directions of the 405 between Westminster Boulevard and Springdale Street will close at 10 p.m. and reopen at 8:30 the next morning. The bridge and nearby ramps will shut down, as well.

Then, on June 8, starting at 11 p.m., both directions of the freeway between Beach Boulevard and Goldenwest Street will be closed until 8 a.m. June 9. Likewise, the bridge and ramps there will be off-limits.

The closures will allow crews to demolish parts of the bridges spanning those areas. Detours will be in place to guide drivers around the closures.

The Westminster Boulevard and Bolsa Avenue bridges will be reconstructed in two stages, allowing them to remain open to traffic during construction. Each stage will take about 12 months.

Sidewalks and bike lanes will be added to both bridges, and the Bolsa Avenue bridge will gain two car lanes for a total of seven.

The expansion will result in two additional lanes each way on the 16-mile stretch between the 73 Freeway and the 605 Freeway. Both will serve as pay-to-use express lanes, replacing the one carpool lane currently in place. Drivers will have access to five regular lanes, for a total of seven lanes.

More than 18 bridges will be built, widened or replaced. The project is expected to be finished in 2023.

OCTA officials say express lanes will speed up travel times between Costa Mesa and the Los Angeles County line.

The $1.9 billion I-405 Improvement Project is funded by a few sources; Measure M, the county’s half-cent sales tax for transportation improvements, will foot the bulk of the bill at about $1.1 billion. The federal government will chip in $45.6 million, and the state $89.7 million.

For more information, go to octa.net/405improvement.