Carmageddon shortcuts from South Bay to Westside

SOUTH BAY, LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Circumnavigating "Carmaggedon": The 405 Freeway between the 10 and 101 freeways will closed Friday night, July 15, until the following Monday morning for construction. Plenty of people will stay at home to avoid the chaos. But what if you can't?

The 405 will be shut down northbound at the 10. That means the end of the line as you hit the Santa Monica Freeway.

See a live cam shot of the Mulholland Bridge construction site.

But it's likely the freeway going north will be backed up well beyond that, maybe for many miles.

If you have to get from the South Bay or LAX area to the north, Sepulveda Blvd. is nice and wide and flows pretty well.

Just north of the airport, Lincoln Blvd. veers off to the west, which you can take through Playa del Rey, Venice and up into Santa Monica.

Sepulveda will also take you to West L.A., but it's likely to get busy as you get nearer to the closure.

Long before the 405 even existed there was La Cienega Blvd., a nice wide street that makes its way north from Inglewood and travels through Baldwin Hills. In some spots it even resembles a freeway. You can take La Cienega all the way up to Sunset Blvd.

Running parallel to La Cienega is another street that moves well: La Brea Ave. You can actually start out on Hawthorne Blvd. in the South Bay and it becomes La Brea at Century Blvd. North of there, it too cuts through Baldwin Hills with a minimum of cross-traffic.

One of the reasons these streets tend to be popular with so many weekday commuters is that during peak hours, the curb lane becomes a no-parking/no-stopping zone and you get an extra traffic lane. Those restrictions don't generally apply on weekends, however.

If officials do decide to restrict parking on Carmageddon weekend, it'll be smooth sailing. Even if the curb lanes aren't available, these roads still tend to move pretty well.

And both these thoroughfares head right through the middle of town and across many major east-west streets. At their northern ends, you can then get to Laurel Canyon Blvd., Coldwater Canyon Ave. or Beverly Glen Blvd. and get all the way into the San Fernando Valley.

Score another one for surface streets as we all deal with the big freeway closure.

Check out an interactive map of Dave Kunz 405 closure shortcuts.

Get live traffic maps at abc7.com/traffic

Beat Carmageddon with ABC7

The 405 shuts down the weekend of July 16-17, and ABC7 Eyewitness News is your home for the latest traffic news and information. Follow @abc7 and @BeatCarmageddon on Twitter, and use the hash tag #abc7traffic.

ABC7 has also partnered with Waze to help navigate the traffic. Download the Waze app, which provides free turn-by-turn GPS navigation based on the live conditions of the road. Join the community of drivers in Southern California today and beat Carmageddon.

Check out the latest Carmageddon coverage from abc7.com

Get more ABC7 Traffic Center »

carmageddon, I-405 closure, construction, road closure, abc7 traffic center, dave kunz

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