North Gate Road will be closed until early next year

NORTH GATE ROAD

North Gate Road is expected to remain closed until early next year for the safety of drivers, pedestrians and cyclists.

Part of the work on North Gate Road includes installing a sewer line under the freeway.

While drilling for the new line, crews encountered unexpected soil conditions and groundwater, which require additional engineering and planning to address. Once a solution is reached, construction of the sewer line will resume.

The Orange County Transportation Authority, in coordination with the city of Seal Beach, reviewed options for temporarily allowing traffic on North Gate Road. However, all options posed safety concerns because of the current construction zone, which includes a 20-foot-deep excavation area to install the new sewer line.

It is expected that the additional work required to test and analyze the soil and develop a solution to address the soil conditions and groundwater will take approximately three months. While OCTA will work to accelerate this schedule, the sewer line is expected to be completed, and North Gate Road reopened, in early 2021.

This work is part of the $1.9 billion I-405 Improvement Project, which will add one regular lane in each direction of I-405 between Euclid Street and I-605, and a second lane in each direction of the freeway from SR-73 to

I-605 that will combine with the existing carpool lanes to form the

405 Express Lanes.

This segment of I-405 is one of the most heavily traveled stretches of highway in the nation, and drivers routinely face severe congestion in both the regular lanes and carpool lanes. The project will accommodate expected employment, population and housing growth throughout the region.

—Orange County Transportation Authority