Friday Afternoon Extra: Bad Spaghetti

Have you ever wondered why some highway construction projects seem to take forever? Surely, it must be easy to add a lane to a road or do a road repair. There are often unseen complications, as discussed in the article “Moving the spaghetti of utilities under Sepulveda Boulevard”. This relates to the I-405 HOV lane expansion over the Sepulveda Pass. In addition to rebuilding three bridges to be wider, Sepulveda Blvd needs to be relocated in portions. This means all the underground utilities that cross those bridges or go through the pass need to be considered and possibly moved. This isn’t easy. It is estimated there are 24 utility owners impacted. Shell, Chevron, Exxon and Mobil each have oil pipelines through the pass. SCS Energy has a natural gas pipeline to UCLA. There are fiber optics lines. Southern California Gas Company and Southern California Edison bring gas and electricity to their customers through the pass. Verizon and ATT connect residences and business via the Sepulveda Pass, and the Metropolitan Water District has a 96-inch-diameter water line under Sepulveda Boulevard. Further, it isn’t always clear who pays to move the utility, because it isn’t necessarily Caltrans.