22 Freeway refit is ready to open
A two-year overhaul of the Garden Grove Freeway is expected to be finished Thursday, with new traffic lanes and improved on- and offramps expected to ease some of Orange County’s most congested traffic.
The $550-million project along a 12-mile stretch added two lanes -- including a carpool lane -- in each direction, as well as sound walls, and widened or replaced more than 30 bridges. Traffic experts predict that drivers traveling that stretch of the freeway during rush hour will save 20 minutes.
Beginning Monday, night construction crews will start removing eight miles of temporary concrete barriers and restriping freeway lanes. Officials with the Orange County Transportation Authority said some minor work will continue through March.
Motorists are advised to use caution.
“Sometimes drivers get used to driving on a freeway only to find out the next day they’ve shifted the lane locations,” said spokesman Michael Litschi.
Built to handle 115,000 cars a day in the 1960s, the freeway from Seal Beach to Tustin now carries 200,000 cars. Traffic on the 22 will climb to 250,000 cars a day by 2020, according to an OCTA forecast.
The Santa Ana Freeway, with more than 389,000 cars a day, still ranks as the busiest in the county.
But the Garden Grove is one of the most congested during rush hours, especially at the Orange Crush interchange, where the 22 meets the Santa Ana and Orange freeways.
OCTA officials said they were able to shave three years off construction time on the Garden Grove Freeway by using a method called “design-built,” in which construction crews work on one section of the road while architects design another section.
Granite Construction Co., the project’s main contractor, said it lost millions of dollars because of a tight schedule that caused crews to work around the clock to make up for delays caused by rain and the seismic retrofitting of bridges.
Granite officials said they expected to lose nearly $13 million for work on the project. OCTA officials said the contractor would have to file a claim to seek additional money.
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New lanes and more
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Most of the $550 million in improvements to theGarden Grove Freeway will be completed Thursday. The entire 12-mileroute was widened, carpool and general purpose lanes were added, andmajor interchanges at Beach Boulevard, the City Drive and the OrangeCrush were reworked to improve traffic fow. But it’s not over yet: When the Magnolia bridge has been replaced in March -- one of 35 bridges widened or replaced during the process -- the new generalpurpose lanes will extend to Beach Boulevard and the carpool lanes to Valley View Street. Phase 2 of the project will improve on- and offramps there.
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