No More Traffic Officers at Sunset Intersections in Brentwood

Traffic control officers will be called away from four Sunset Boulevard intersections starting Monday and won't return until schools are back in session on Aug. 14, according to Metro and Los Angeles Department of Transportation officials.

The affected intersections meet Sunset Boulevard at Bundy Drive, Barrington Avenue, Barrington Place and Church Lane in Brentwood.

For the past three weeks, traffic control officers have been stationed at some 17 locations to help enforce the right of way after Metro closed two key ramps of the 405 Freeway at Wilshire Boulevard. 

"It was explained to the community that these TCOs would be in place for one week," wrote Metro spokesperson Kasey Shuda in an email. "Deployment from there would be on an as-needed basis."  

After the first week of the Wilshire ramp closures, traffic officers were reduced to six locations for the past two weeks, according to Shuda:
    •    Sunset Boulevard and Barrington Avenue
    •    Sunset Boulevard and Church Lane
    •    Sunset Boulevard at the northbound 405 ramps
    •    Santa Monica Boulevard and Beloit Avenue
    •    Santa Monica Boulevard and Cotner Avenue
    •    Santa Monica and Sepulveda boulevards

"Due to the fact that the Wilshire ramp closures have had little impact on traffic, and July is the lightest traffic month, the project decided to remove the TCOs to reserve resources for a later time," wrote Shuda. "The project does not have the resources to fund TCOs at Sunset for the remaining weeks leading up to the Sunset bridge opening, which is scheduled for early to mid September."  

At that time, the Sunset bridge will return to full traffic capacity and should help with congestion at Sunset and Barrington, wrote Shuda.

Metro will monitor traffic at the affected Sunset intersections on Monday and will deploy traffic officers if it is deemed necessary, according to the agency.