The 405 freeway running through Los Angeles is one of the most crowded thoroughfares in America. Bumper-to-bumper traffic for hours on end is the rule, not the exception. Thanks to that overcrowding, the city initiated the I-405 Sepulveda Pass Improvements Project, designed to change on-ramps, add another lane, and improve sound walls and bridges. Only one problem: the project is running more than a year behind. The City of LA just can’t get it done.
Dave Sotero, spokesman for LA County Metro, said that there was no relief in sight: “Right now the contractor is working day and night in order to complete the project.” The problem, however, is that they can’t really work at night because it keeps the neighbors awake, and they can’t work during the day because it clogs up traffic.
The entire project is supposed to cost $1.34 billion – surely a low estimate – and has already prompted two weekends on which virtually all traffic in that area of Los Angeles was shut down. Those weekends were known as Carmageddon and Carmageddon II.
The residents of Los Angeles pay some of the highest taxes in America. But they still can’t buy a working freeway.
Ben Shapiro is Editor-At-Large of Breitbart News and author of the book “Bullies: How the Left’s Culture of Fear and Intimidation Silences America” (Threshold Editions, January 8, 2013).
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