Ortega surgery is already painful for drivers

It long ago earned the nickname “Ricochet Alley,” a narrow, three-mile stretch of tight curves through the Santa Ana Mountains.

Now, the winding section of Ortega Highway -- where 12 people have been killed in traffic accidents in the last decade -- will be widened and perhaps tamed.

Caltrans’ $40-million project on California 74 will widen lanes and add shoulders, guardrails and turnouts along one of the few connectors between Orange and Riverside counties. Contractors will cut into the mountainside to eliminate blind curves that put drivers at risk, said Pam Gorniak, a Department of Transportation spokeswoman.

“The purpose of the project is to reduce accidents and save lives,” Gorniak said.

But it won’t be easy, and it certainly won’t be convenient.

Ortega Highway is a narrow, 30-mile road that offers majestic views and considerable risk.

There are blind curves, plunging canyon walls and many motorcyclists hugging the center lanes.

But the alternatives for commuters shuttling between the two counties are massively inconvenient. Drivers can head to the congested 91 Freeway or drive south around Camp Pendleton. Commuters figure that either alternative adds hours to their drive.

When construction began this week, frustration emerged from the inconvenience of road closures and delays that will occur during the next three years.

Motorists will see delays of 50 minutes and longer during the day; at night, the road will be closed from 8:30 p.m. to 4:30 a.m., six or seven days a week.

On Tuesday afternoon, flagmen and pilot cars halted traffic on the first day of the construction job, creating a parking lot for hundreds of cars traveling in both directions. At times, the only thing moving was a hawk soaring overhead.

Nay Kim, 35, a Lake Elsinore resident who commutes to the Nichols Institute near San Juan Capistrano, sat in his car, the engine idling.

“I was talking to my sister on my cell,” Kim said. “She works at Nichols too, and she just got home in Lake Elsinore. It took her an hour and a half for a drive that usually takes only 25 to 30 minutes.”

“It’s bad,” said Gilberto Orgas, 39, a construction worker from Lake Elsinore who drives the Ortega daily to get to job sites in Irvine and other Orange County cities. “Take the 91? That’s too far, and you end up fighting more traffic. The bad thing is that my wife also drives this road to get to work.”

The highway’s popularity has surged over the last decade with inland growth in the Lake Elsinore-Temecula-Murrieta areas, making the road “our 91 Freeway,” said one commuter. About 10,000 cars travel it daily.

Commuters waiting in line said they wished Caltrans would give them relief, either by tunneling through the Santa Ana Mountains or widening the Ortega.

“We need a new route,” said Bill Miller, 61, of Temecula.

Caltrans officials estimated that a new road would cost $3 billion, which wouldn’t include extensive environmental protections required for the wilderness areas, Cleveland National Forest and the San Juan Creek watershed.

Those areas are home to mountain lions, centuries-old oaks and 20 threatened species of plants and animals, such as the arroyo toad and southern steelhead trout.

Planners say the expanded road would accommodate at least 35,000 vehicles a day -- more than three times its current capacity.

The Ortega has emerged as a secondary commuter link to Orange County from southern Riverside County, a purpose it was never designed for when the winding highway was built in 1929 along what had been an old Indian trail.

Frustrations were evident at a Caltrans community meeting in San Juan Capistrano on Tuesday night, where it was suggested that residents use alternate routes.

Caltrans said inland residents with jobs in Orange County should consider taking the Riverside Freeway to Orange County, or routes through neighboring San Diego County.

Anne-Marie Harvey, 52, who lives in El Cariso Village, an oak-shaded community near the road’s 2,666-foot summit, recalled the last highway closure and its effect on mountain residents. “That last year was hell,” said Harvey, a nurse.

“It only takes me 30 minutes to get to my job in Santa Ana. But I had to take the long way around on the 91 when the road closed, and it took me a minimum of three hours.”

The high price of gas, expensive tolls on the 91 Freeway and the thought of an extra four to six hours commuting weighed on drivers who typically use the Ortega. “Plus, the road improvements will only make drivers drive faster,” Harvey said.

Caltrans has yet to adequately assess the potential damage to businesses along Ortega Highway that will suffer from the construction closures and the potential loss of customers who might shift their commutes, the residents said.

Tyler Paulson, owner of Hell’s Kitchen, a restaurant and bar popular with motorcyclists and sports car enthusiasts in El Cariso Village, called the project “a nightmare” that should have been delayed until transportation officials fixed the notoriously congested Riverside Freeway.

Paulson filed two lawsuits against the state this week, one seeking damages for lost revenue and another to force Caltrans to reconsider its construction schedule.

Robert Legate, Paulson’s attorney, said his client feared losing his business and had asked Caltrans to sit down and discuss whether construction schedules should be altered to minimize the inconvenience to customers and harm to the restaurant.

“They didn’t want to talk to us,” Legate said.

Caltrans had not been served with the lawsuit and had no comment, said Gorniak, the Caltrans spokeswoman.

Legate said he spoke to the California Highway Patrol and was told there was a five-mile traffic backup on the Ortega on the first day of construction.

“Nobody is going up on Harleys for refreshments with a five-mile backup,” he said.

*

david.reyes@latimes.com