DOWNEY – The I-5 intersection at Florence Avenue is scheduled to undergo long-term construction beginning as early as January of next year. 

The Santa Ana Freeway Florence Avenue Interchange Project aims to bring several benefits to the highly traveled freeway corridor which extends through Downey and Santa Fe Springs to just north of the 605 bridge. 

Improvements include the addition of a high occupancy vehicle lane in both directions, interchange improvements, pavement replacement and pedestrian overcrossings.  

The Florence Avenue overcrossing will also be widened from four to six lanes. 

Several closures have also taken place due to the project. Dollison Drive (between Quinn Street and the southbound I-5 on ramp) and the southbound 1-5 Dollison Drive have been permanently closed. The southbound I-5 Florence Avenue on ramp long-term closure will continue through early 2018.

Project cost is $215.4 million. The anticipated traffic opening is late 2019. 

A representative of Caltrans was on hand at City Hall Tuesday evening to give a presentation about the project at a special meeting called for city residents who may have had questions concerning the upcoming construction. 

Traffic on the affected parts of Florence is expected to get extremely congested, so commuters are encouraged to find alternate routes and detours during the project’s duration. 

For more information, please visit My5LA.com.