WCC Taking a Holiday, Then Pile Driving Gets Going

I’m pretty sure most of you know by now that a major freeway construction project is well under way right under your noses, or out your front door or in your back yard, depending upon where you happen to be standing.

The West County Connectors project kicked off construction late last year and I’m sure it has caused delays to your daily drive to work and your trips around the neighborhood. On behalf of everyone at the Orange County Transportation Authority, I sincerely hope that the disruptions – whether on the road or while at home – have been minimal.

Will Kempton, our chief executive, often repeats that construction is not a good neighbor. We know that, and we greatly appreciate your patience and understanding as the project progresses to directly connect the carpool lanes on I-405 with those on the SR-22 and I-605. In the end this project will make a heavily congested area better and it will improve safety.

Saying all that, I want to thank Patch for giving us an opportunity to join its network of bloggers. Over the coming months, the WCC team plans on giving you regular updates, insights and information as well as answer your questions about the project.

On the update front: No closures are planned from Friday through Monday of the long Independence Day weekend. Following Fourth of July holiday, construction crews are set to begin pile driving in order to reconstruct the northbound I-405 / westbound SR-22 / 7th Street connector, which I’m sure you know was demolished in April.

The pile driving will continue roughly between 7 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. weekdays and this will be ongoing intermittently for the next six months. We wanted to give you a heads up on this because if you’re not familiar with pile driving, it is loud and if you’re nearby you can hear it and feel the vibration.

In the simplest terms, a pile driver is a machine used to drive the piles that are made of concrete or steel into the ground. Piles can be more than 100 feet long and provide support for structures like the bridge that is being constructed.  

Cast-in-steel-shell piles will be used on this project. These piles are open-ended steel cylinder shells that are driven into the soil. The soil is then removed and filled with concrete after reinforcement is placed. More than 140,000 feet of piling will be added, meaning placed end to end, it will span longer than the Orange County Marathon.

If you’d like to know more about the project or if you want to sign for project alerts and information, please visit: www.octa.net/westcounty. Also, please feel free to comment here and we will be happy to respond.

Drive safely!