Castaic is in the middle of two separate Interstate 5 projects. Metro is adding carpool lanes from the Newhall Pass up to Parker Road. Caltrans is tearing out and repaving the freeway from Hasley Canyon Road north toward Vista del Lago. Each has its own contractor, closure hours, notice system and finish date. All three Castaic interchanges, Hasley Canyon, Parker and Lake Hughes, fall within at least one project's limits. The stretch between Hasley Canyon and Parker falls within both.
So when the Lake Hughes on-ramp is closed, the cones can belong to either agency. Whose cones they are tells you where to detour, how long the closure lasts and which website will warn you next time.
Where the two project maps overlap
Metro's I-5 North County Enhancements Project covers the freeway "from the SR-14 interchange to just south of Parker Road in Castaic," working in partnership with Caltrans District 7. The Caltrans pavement job runs "between Hasley Canyon Road and one mile south of Vista del Lago Road," according to the Caltrans notice KHTS published on Oct. 10, 2026.
Put those limits side by side and the Hasley Canyon-to-Parker stretch belongs to both projects. Metro's southbound closure notice also reaches north to the Lake Hughes Road on-ramp. That puts the town's busiest on-ramp on both agencies' closure lists.
| Metro: I-5 North County Enhancements | Caltrans: I-5 pavement rehabilitation | |
|---|---|---|
| Contractor | OHLA-USA | Griffith Company |
| Limits | SR-14 to just south of Parker Road | Hasley Canyon Road to one mile south of Vista del Lago Road |
| Started | Broke ground Dec. 1, 2021 | Spring 2025 |
| Cost | $679 million, per the 2021 budget figure | $61.15 million estimated |
| Castaic ramps on its closure list | SB Lake Hughes on-ramp, SB Parker on-ramp, SB Hasley Canyon off-ramp, SB Hasley Canyon/Sedona Way and Hasley Canyon/The Old Road on-ramps, NB Hasley Canyon on/off-ramps, NB Parker off-ramp | Lake Hughes on- and off-ramps in both directions, plus Templin Highway |
| How closures run | Intermittent, hours vary by ramp, listed through February 2027 | Overnight blocks announced week by week |
| Stated finish | March 2027, moved from November 2026 | Through winter 2027 |
The Caltrans job north of town comes in weekly overnight blocks
The pavement project is the source of the overnight closures that shut down Lake Hughes in both directions at once. The crews are replacing concrete slabs, upgrading guardrails and repaving. Caltrans says the work will improve ride quality and worker safety, and it warns that "nearby residents and businesses may experience noise, vibrations, and grinding during construction."
This month's notices have followed a steady pattern. For the week of Oct. 11, the Caltrans schedule KHTS published opened with a Sunday night block. Up to three lanes in each direction closed from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. The southbound Lake Hughes on-ramp closed as early as 3 p.m., and the other Lake Hughes ramps and both Templin Highway ramps closed at 5 p.m. From Monday through Thursday, lanes and the Lake Hughes and Templin ramps closed from 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. The SoCal511 notice for the following week repeated that schedule almost exactly, with a Sunday, Oct. 18 block followed by Monday, Oct. 19 through Thursday, Oct. 22.
That Sunday detail matters for anyone heading back toward the Valley on a weekend afternoon. Under both of this month's schedules, the southbound Lake Hughes on-ramp closed at 3 p.m. on Sunday, hours before the full overnight lane closures began.
Caltrans says the work began in spring 2025 and is scheduled to continue through winter 2027. Its closure dates arrive in short notices, each marked "subject to change," so they work better as a weekly heads-up than as a calendar to plan around.
The Metro job south of Parker comes ramp by ramp
Metro's closures work differently. The project's southbound closure notice lists intermittent closures from Lake Hughes Road to Hasley Canyon Road "through February 2027," and each ramp has its own working hours. Two of them affect Castaic directly:
- SB Lake Hughes Road on-ramp: Monday through Thursday, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. and 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. Friday and Saturday windows run from 8 p.m. into the next morning.
- SB Parker Road on-ramp: Monday through Thursday, 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. One weekend window runs from 3 p.m. Saturday to 1 p.m. Sunday.
The weekday daytime hours on the Lake Hughes on-ramp set Metro's work apart. Caltrans's weekday closures of that ramp start at 7 p.m., and its earliest closure this month began at 3 p.m. on a Sunday. Under Metro's notice, the ramp can also be closed during a weekday midday window.
On the northbound side, Metro's northbound notice lists the Hasley Canyon on- and off-ramps and the Parker Road off-ramp. The northbound Hasley Canyon on-ramp can close 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. to 6 a.m., plus a stretch from 8 p.m. Saturday to 5 p.m. Sunday.
Lake Hughes and Parker are each other's posted detour
The detour maps show how Castaic's ramps depend on each other. Metro routes drivers around a closed southbound Lake Hughes on-ramp to Parker Road, and around a closed southbound Parker on-ramp back to Lake Hughes. The connecting roads are The Old Road and Castaic Road.
If the southbound Lake Hughes on-ramp is closed:
- Coming west on Lake Hughes Road, turn right on The Old Road, then left on Parker Road to the southbound on-ramp.
- Coming east on Lake Hughes Road, continue onto Castaic Road, then turn right on Parker Road to the southbound on-ramp.
If the southbound Parker Road on-ramp is closed:
- Coming east on Parker Road, turn left on Castaic Road, left on Lake Hughes Road, then left on The Old Road to the southbound on-ramp.
- Coming west on Parker Road, turn left on The Old Road to the southbound on-ramp.
The Hasley Canyon detours stay on The Old Road. For a closed southbound Hasley Canyon/Sedona Way on-ramp, Metro sends drivers south on The Old Road to the next southbound on-ramp. For a closed Hasley Canyon/The Old Road on-ramp, it sends them north on The Old Road.
The Lake Hughes and Parker detours lean on each other, and Caltrans's overnight blocks close Lake Hughes in both directions on their own schedule. So when you find one ramp closed, check the other agency's notice too. Metro's detour signs assume the other ramp is open, and the two schedules are published separately.
What each project leaves behind
The two projects build different things, and that explains why one is a multiyear lane project and the other is a resurfacing job.
Metro's project adds one carpool lane in each direction. It also adds truck lanes in both directions between SR-14 and Calgrove Boulevard, auxiliary lanes between selected ramps, Intelligent Transportation System upgrades, soundwalls at four locations and a replacement Weldon Canyon Bridge. Metro says the work is meant to improve mobility and safety "without adding general-purpose lanes." The truck lanes, the Weldon Canyon Bridge and the soundwalls between Magic Mountain Parkway and Calgrove are all well south of Castaic. For Castaic drivers, the main payoff is a carpool lane that runs up to just south of Parker Road.
The Caltrans job leaves the lane count unchanged. What it delivers is a smoother freeway surface north of Hasley Canyon and upgraded guardrails.
Two finish dates, and one has already moved
Metro's timeline has moved once. SCVNews reported in August 2026 that the project's original completion date was November 2026 and that the target is now March 2027. Metro's project page lists "Spring 2027."
The schedule Metro presented at its Aug. 26, 2026 community meeting, marked "subject to change," shows three stages:
- Stage 1: median and HOV lane construction, October 2021 to June 2026
- Stage 2: auxiliary lanes and ramps, April 2024 to December 2026
- Stage 3: exterior retaining walls, August to December 2026
Completion is marked March 2027.
Stage 2 is the ramp stage, and it is the one Castaic drivers are living with now. It is scheduled to wrap up at the end of 2026, while the posted ramp closures run through February 2027. Caltrans's separate timeline of "through winter 2027" is on top of that. One project finishing in spring will not mean every cone around Castaic is gone.
Where to check before you leave
Each project uses its own channel:
- Caltrans pavement work: Caltrans points drivers to Caltrans QuickMap for real-time closures. Its weekly closure notices also appear on SoCal511 and in local outlets like KHTS.
- Metro carpool-lane work: The Metro project page has email updates, construction notices and the project team's contact information. The ramp-by-ramp hours and detours are in Metro's southbound and northbound notices.
Keeping both bookmarked is the quickest way to know whether Parker is a real backup on a night when Lake Hughes is closed.
If you're thinking about listing a Castaic home while this work continues, timing showings and open houses around the closure windows on Lake Hughes and Parker is part of the plan. Kym De Lorenzo and the De Lorenzo Properties team follow these schedules and can build a marketing calendar that works with them. Request Your Free Home Valuation to start the conversation.
