Board Favors More 91 Lanes

Widening the 91 Freeway within five years to ease massive congestion won approval Monday from Orange County’s transportation agency.

But the work, costing up to $680 million, is not likely to stop there. The agency also agreed to continue studying controversial proposals for elevated lanes down the median of the existing highway, or alongside it, and a tunnel between Orange and Riverside counties through the Santa Ana Mountains.

“This is not only a step in the right direction,” said Chris Norby, a board member of the Orange County Transportation Authority and a county supervisor, “but it represents a continued aggressive search for a way over and under these mountains to get people where they want to go.”

The work would be funded by a combination of state, federal and county money. The same proposals now go to the Riverside County Transportation Commission on Wednesday.

If approved Wednesday, the widening project would enter the planning phase for one or two lanes in both directions between Interstate 15 in Riverside County and the 55 Freeway in Orange County.

Those lanes would be in addition to an extra eastbound lane, already in the planning stage, from the Foothill-Eastern tollway in Anaheim to the Corona Expressway. Plans call for completion of that lane in two to three years.

The Orange County agency’s decision comes after 18 months of talks that resulted in half a dozen projects being recommended last month by an advisory panel of elected officials from Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

“Now we will look at costs and environmental impacts,” to those ideas, said Paul C. Taylor, OCTA’s director for planning, development and commuter services.

The agency eliminated from consideration plans to widen the 55 Freeway, which the 91 Freeway feeds into, and Ortega Highway in South County.

Traffic on the 91 Freeway -- the main connector between Riverside and Orange counties -- is expected to grow from 250,000 trips a day to as many as 480,000 by 2030.

During Monday’s meeting, board members said doing nothing would only lead to more freeway congestion, forcing more residents in both counties to consider changing jobs or moving.

Several members said much more needs to be done.

Anaheim Mayor Curt Pringle and other board members said they were certain the agency’s focus on relieving congestion by “jamming all the traffic” in Santa Ana Canyon, where the 91 Freeway enters Orange County, is only part of the solution.

“It will not solve the region’s congestion,” he said.

Santa Ana Mayor Miguel A. Pulido said the agency should begin discussing land use with elected officials in Riverside County. Housing construction and job growth are trends that need to be closely watched as the transportation projects take shape, he said.

Board members also asked for more analysis on the possibility of adding four to six lanes elevated over the median or alongside the 91 Freeway from Interstate 15 to the Foothill-Eastern tollway.

The controversial proposal for a roughly 12-mile tunnel from Irvine to Corona under the Santa Ana Mountains will also get more study.

Laguna Niguel Mayor Cathryn DeYoung criticized the “tunnel fantasy” Monday for its cost and the traffic it would add to South County.

The tunnel is estimated to cost at least $6 billion yet only handle 60,000 motorists a day, she noted.

In other business, board members asked the California Department of Transportation to consider allowing solo drivers the use of carpool lanes in off-peak hours.

“The issue is one of fairness,” said Bill Campbell, OCTA board chairman and a county supervisor, who came up with the idea when he was an assemblyman driving in Sacramento.

Lone drivers in parts of Northern California can use carpool lanes and can weave in and out of them without restriction in off-peak hours, he said.

Cindy Quon, head of Caltrans’ district office in Orange County, said the state agency welcomes “any dialogue” about carpool lanes.

She said it would require coordination with other Caltrans districts and transportation agencies. She declined to say whether she would support a change until Caltrans studied it.

Board members also approved coordination of traffic signals countywide. It could increase traffic speeds 5%, reducing stops and delays on heavily traveled thoroughfares, an agency spokesman said.

The agency has identified 750 miles of eligible streets, with 2,000 signals. But the project’s $450-million cost is predicated on renewal of Measure M’s half-percent sales tax on the November ballot next year.

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Help on the way

The 91 Freeway will be widened by one or two lanes in both directions, the Orange County Transportation Authority decided Monday. The agency will continue to consider adding lanes elevated over the freeway’s median or next to the freeway, and building a tunnel under the Santa Ana Mountains.

Estimated project duration and cost

-- Adding lanes in each direction (3 years to plan, 2 to build); $680 million

-- Consider 4 to 6 elevated/adjacent lanes (6 years to plan, 3 to build); Up to $3 billion

-- Consider 12.6-mile tunnel (11 years to plan, 6 to build); $6 to 8 billion

NOTE: Planning is expected to begin in 2006

Source: Orange County Transportation Authority