Officials Provide More Details On 5 Freeway Shutdown In Burbank

BURBANK (CBSLA) – In what has been dubbed as Carmageddon 2, officials released more details Tuesday on the full 36-hour shutdown of the 5 Freeway in Burbank happening in late April in order to demolish the Burbank Boulevard overpass bridge.

The 5 Freeway closure will be the biggest in the Los Angeles metro area since 2011's Carmageddon, which famously shut down the 405 Freeway.

However, the stay at home orders due to the coronavirus pandemic have meant that traffic is already light.

The full closure will run from 2 p.m. Saturday, April 25, through 2 a.m. on Monday, April 27, according to Caltrans.

The northbound 5 Freeway will be closed from the 134 Freeway near Griffith Park up to north of Burbank Boulevard. The southbound 5 Freeway will be closed from the 170 Freeway in Sun Valley down to south of Verdugo Avenue.

Crews will start closing 5 Freeway on-ramps beginning at 10 a.m. on April 25, four hours before the full closure takes effect.

Drivers are advised to completely avoid the 5 Freeway in the Glendale, Burbank and Sun Valley areas.

The Burbank Boulevard bridge has been permanently closed since March 14. It is being demolished and replaced with a wider, longer one that will have bike lanes and a wide sidewalk, Caltrans reports. The new bridge will open sometime in 2021. Until it opens, drivers must use one of nine other 5 Freeway crossings in Burbank.

Along with replacing the bridge, carpool lanes are being added to the 5 Freeway. The work is all part of an ongoing $355 million project in the area to improve traffic and safety on the 5 Freeway corridor.
During the weekend closure, northbound drivers will be detoured from westbound State Route 134 to northbound SR-170 to the northbound 5 Freeway. Or from eastbound SR-134 to northbound SR-2 to westbound I-210 to northbound 5 Freeway.

Southbound drivers will be detoured to SR-170.

During the closure, street access to the downtown Burbank Amtrak/Metrolink bus station at 201 North Front St. will be from the south only, via Verdugo Avenue.