What Has Seal Beach Boulevard So Backed Up?

In mid July, crews shifted the flow of traffic on the Seal Beach Boulevard overpass, reducing the flow of traffic to one lane. But it will get better.

Since the Seal Beach Boulevard freeway overpass was reduced to one lane during the second week of July, local commuters have been mired in delays and construction traffic that inches along.

The congestion was caused by a change in the layout of the traffic flow over the bridge, and as a result, commuters approaching the intersection of Seal Beach Boulevard and North Gate Road may have to wait several lights to cross the intersection.

According to City Manager Sean Cumby, residents can expect to have two lanes, each way, back in late September.

"We are in the home stretch for the worst part of the construction," he said. "When the first phase is done, there will be two lanes of traffic in construction."
The construction work is part of the $277 million-dollar West County Connectors project.

According to Crumby, the increased cramping of traffic in that area is from construction needs along North Gate Road and the bridge, as part of Cal Trans and the OCTA's $277 million-dollar West County Connectors project.
"The taking of more space to do their work has had an impact on traffic's ability to get over the bridge," he says. "We continue to work with the Orange County Transportation Authority in looking for the best way to manage traffic for the project."
OCTA's community relations specialist, Sarah King, said one way the city of Seal Beach, Cal Trans and OCTA have been working together to monitor traffic over the bridge, is by adjusting light signals.
"We adjust the time, changing the length of the green light in order to clear the queue in the intersection by a couple minutes for everyone so a couple more cars are able to get through,” said King.
She said the city's traffic signal maintenance team has been working together with Cal Trans' traffic signal operators by monitoring traffic patterns and making adjustments to the signal timing as necessary.
"In September, we will actually move traffic onto the new part of the bridge which will be restored back to two lanes in each direction." King said, "Shifting traffic around has just been something we've had to do for us to be able to make progress."
According to Joel Zlotnik of OCTA's media relations, "the project is on schedule." He said they OCTA doesn’t anticipate anything that will prolong the current one-lane flow of traffic.