Metro Still Planning 405 Freeway Widening Mega-Project, Additional $46.9M Slated to be Approved This Week
Some SBLA readers may remember Metro and Caltrans’ I-605 Corridor Improvement Project that was supposed to demolish more than 300 homes and apartments, mostly along the 5 Freeway in the city of Downey. Despite the current climate crisis, the project is back, zombie-like, on the Metro board agenda this week.
The $4+ billion 605 mega-project would widen 15 miles of the 605 Freeway, plus widen interchanges, ramps, and several miles of nearby stretches of the 5, 10, 60, and 105 Freeways.
In August 2020, Metro and Caltrans announced the then-final project alternatives that would mean hundreds of demolitions. Community uproar got the Metro board to pause the project in late 2020. Then in 2023, Metro staff announced the project would proceed with “no residential displacements.” In 2024 and 2025, Metro began to back off of the 2023 pledge, noting that “some partial acquisitions might be needed.”
The project was rebranded as multi-modal; its name shifted from I-605 Corridor Improvement Project to the I-605 CMIP (Corridor Multimodal Improvements Project). Often Metro terms highway projects multimodal even when they have no improvements for non-drivers. Metro is in the process of adding some multimodal fig-leaves to the massive 605/5/10/60/105 car capacity expansion. Metro has not finalized those multimodal project specifics, but one “multimodal” component the agency stated: “provide roadway connections to transit stations.” See Metro’s 605 Freeway Multimodal and Complete Streets Framework for a non-committal listing of some potential project components.
At this Thursday’s meeting [agenda], the Metro board is set to approve $46.9 million [staff report] for additional professional services consultant work on the 605 CMIP. Funding would go to contractors that have worked on the 605 mega-project since 2016.
These freeway expansion funds were preliminarily approved by the Metro board Planning Committee last week [video]. At that meeting, Metro staff justified the freeway widening citing congestion impacts to riders on bus line 577, which Metro operates on the 605 twice per hour on weekdays.
The item is anticipated to be approved on consent (no discussion) this Thursday.
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