Skirball Bridge demo—and detours—begin

Getting over the Sepulveda Pass is going to be trickier than usual over the next five nights.

Demolition work on the north side of the Skirball Center Drive Bridge over the 405 Freeway is set to begin tonight, requiring full closure of the freeway between the hours of 9 p.m. and 6 a.m. The after-hours work is expected to continue for five consecutive nights.

Metro has assembled a fact sheet on the Skirball Bridge segment of the project, along with construction information and detour maps.

The bridge is one of three affected by the Sepulveda Pass Improvements Project to build a 10-mile northbound carpool lane on the 405 Freeway. Work on the first, the Sunset Bridge, got underway in July. Metro officials said recently that community concerns about the handling of the third bridge, at Mulholland Drive, has led to a rethinking of that part of the process. Unlike the other bridges, which are being torn down and rebuilt in segments, the Mulholland Bridge now is expected to be torn down all at once after a new replacement bridge is constructed nearby.

Posted 10/12/10

Updated 10/15/10: That was fast. Contractors made quick work of demolishing the north side of the Skirball Bridge over the 405, finishing in three nights instead of the expected five. They’ll be back in a month for two nights of abutment demolition. The rebuilding is expected to take seven months. Then the process will begin all over on the bridge’s south side.