Its just getting worst. I was heading south from OC on a Saturday and counted 9 lanes at one point. 3 car pool and 6 lanes and we were at a dead stop at noon. No matter how many lanes they build it will be a mess. On some days it is bumper to bumper from del mar straight to the OC. Widening it will only allow more cars to be stuck in traffic. SANDAG will always be behing.
The whole merge fix was to help southbound traffic. It was a plan drawn up before northbound was ever a problem.
Look at the 56. They had all the time and space to make it three lanes, instead they built 2 and now at black mountain and carmel valley it is at a dead stop, yet in between traffic flows. heading east for some reason the carmel valley part is backed up yet freed up after and now it looks like they are widening it to 3 lanes but it still will bottleneck to two. I think they do this on purpose to ensure that they will always have work.