Los Feliz Boulevard Braces For Some Serious Lane Closures Through Summer

Brace yourselves: parts of Los Feliz Boulevard is going to be shut down during the daytime starting this week while crews from the Department of Water and Power replace underground electric lines. The project won't let up until fall.The first phase of the project starts on Tuesday: only one westbound lane will be open on Los Feliz Boulevard between 10 am and 6 pm on weekdays and some Saturdays through May, City News Service reports. Normally, there are two lanes for traffic and another lane for turns. All eastbound lanes will be open

Until workers are done with the first phase of the improvement project in May, there will be no left-hand turns 24 hours a day, except from Los Feliz heading west and then south onto Hillhurst. All southbound Hillhurst traffic from Griffith Park will have to turn right onto westbound Los Feliz at all times.

That means you should expect backed-up traffic in the busy thoroughfare between Hollywood and Glendale. Councilman Tom LaBonge sent a notice out to residents in the area, letting them know about the "unavoidable traffic impacts." There will be traffic officers stationed throughout the boulevard during rush hours to keep traffic moving as smoothly as possible during work hours.

The second phase scheduled from early May until late June will involve digging up five of the seven lanes on the boulevard west of Vermont Avenue. That will reduce traffic to just one lane in each direction during the hours of 9 am until 3 pm Monday through Friday, according to CBS Los Angeles. The third phase starts in late June until Fall, and will involve cable slicing. The LADWP says most of this work will be done at night to lessen the impact on traffic.

Replacing the underground electric lines along the boulevard will be inconvenient, but it will improve the power infrastructure, LaBonge wrote. It will "add capacity and relieve existing circuits."

The only westward detour is Barham Boulevard in Cahuenga Pass, which is normally pretty snarled, City News Service notes. Some of the traffic is expected to spill over into Franklin Avenue, Hyperion Avenue, Silver Lake Boulevard and Glendale Boulevard.