Frustrated by that perfectly good lane blocked off on the westbound 22 freeway? The end of your aggravation is near – carpoolers will get to zip through unencumbered in the next few days.

First the lane openings were delayed by rain, now they’re being sped up to avoid more rain. Just know that Sunday marks the start of openings for three fly-over carpool lanes linking up the 22, I-405 and I-605.

The lanes will allow carpool drivers to soar above regular traffic and link up with freeways through a special left exit, something Orange County Transportation Authority spokesman Joel Zlotnik said will “eliminate all the merging and weaving” caused by carpoolers trying to switch freeways.

Opening these connectors marks the end of major work on the West County Connectors project, which cost $297 million – $15 million of which came from the county’s half-cent sales tax known as Measure M. Construction took four years.

Not all the construction is over, though – watch out for intermittent overnight closures of the freeways through February, Zlotnik said, as workers put the “finishing touches” on the project.

Originally, officials estimated the openings would come earlier, but this week’s drenching meant two nights of work lost, according to Bill Gilchrist, a Caltrans engineer who worked on the 405/605 portion of the project.

But with another rainstorm predicted Thursday – one that, according to a National Weather Service forecast, could be colder and stronger than this week’s downpour – transportation officials want to get everything open.

Starting Sunday at 7 a.m., carpool lane drivers on the southbound I-605 can take their own left exit onto the southbound I-405. Drivers will take a left exit and be able to shoot above traffic in the regular lanes on a 2,900-foot-long bridge.

The other side of that bridge, linking up the northbound I-405 carpool lane with the northbound I-605 carpool lane, opens at 5 a.m. Tuesday. The project’s final carpool connector opening is scheduled for 5 a.m. Wednesday with the link-up of the westbound 22 with the northbound I-405.

The other side of that 1,100-foot connector bridge, which links the southbound 405 carpool lane with the eastbound 22 carpool lane, opened last month.

Both bridges have specially grooved concrete designed to reduce noise impact on surrounding communities, which include areas of Garden Grove, Westminster, Seal Beach, Los Alamitos, Long Beach and Rossmoor.

Curious why the bridges have what kind of looks like long legs?

Those are called “outriggers,” Gilchrist explained, and it’s necessary “since the space is so precious underneath.”

In addition to carpool link-ups, the project also added 6 miles of carpool lane to I-405 from the 22 to I-605, nearly doubled the size of the Seal Beach Boulevard bridge, and reconstructed the Valley View Street bridge.

Drivers might wonder if the new connectors might cause some to cheat the carpool lane, using the connector lane as a cut-through.

“That is a concern, but people just have to know and follow the overhead sign,” Gilchrist said.

Caltrans spokesman David Richardson added that unsafe behavior on the road is subject to enforcement by the California Highway Patrol.

“It’s more of an education,” Richardson said. “Caltrans has designed the freeway with the appropriate signs.”

Contact the writer: 714-796-7922 or kmejdrich@ocregister.com