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Southbound 405 Freeway In O.C. Reopens Hours Ahead Of Schedule

WESTMINSTER (CBSLA.com/AP) — A temporarily closed section of one of Southern California's busiest freeways reopened early, after workers demolished a bridge on Sunday.

All barricades were removed from the southbound lanes of a four-mile strip of Interstate 405 in Orange County about 1:50 p.m., allowing for traffic by 2:25 p.m.

The northbound side was expected to follow, according to Orange County Transportation Authority spokesman Ted Nguyen.

The spokesman said only minor traffic delays were reported around detours earlier Sunday.

Southbound 405 Freeway In O.C. Reopens Hours Ahead Of Schedule

The demolition was part of a $277 million project to link carpool lanes between the 405 Freeway, Interstate 605, and State Route 22, according to OCTA spokeswoman Sarah King.

"Demolishing the old southbound 405 connector to the eastbound 22 Freeway was a huge milestone for us because that actually makes room for us to now build the flyover carpool connector for the 22, 405 Freeway," King told KNX 1070.

But King said more work was expected to be done on the road ahead.

"In the future, if you're heading west in a carpool lane on the 22 Freeway, you'd have a seamless transition to the 405 carpool and then to the 605 carpool and it really eliminates the weaving and merging across the general purpose lanes of the 405 Freeway," she said.

Get traffic updates from KNX 1070 and cbsla.com/traffic.

(TM and © Copyright 2013 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2012 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

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