Costa Mesa aims to make East 19th Street safer
In a bid to slow drivers cutting through the Eastside to get to and from the 55 Freeway, Costa Mesa will start work in the coming weeks on a project to add new traffic features and landscaping along East 19th Street.
The goal is to increase pedestrian safety and calm traffic on the residential road — particularly where it intersects with Fullerton, Irvine, Orange, Raymond, Santa Ana, Tustin and Westminster avenues, as well as at an alley east of Tustin.
“It’s not intended to divert traffic; it’s basically to maintain the 25 mph speed limit that’s on the street,” said city Public Services Director Raja Sethuraman.
Workers will install “chokers” — which essentially extend roadside curbs farther into a street — at those intersections. They will make the roadway seem narrower, thus slowing traffic, Sethuraman said Friday.
That’s been the experience with nearby Broadway, where the city undertook a similar effort a few years ago.
Along with slowing traffic, the project will enhance the residential character of East 19th Street, city officials say.
Entry monument signs will be put up at Fullerton and Irvine to boost identification of the Eastside neighborhood, and new landscaping will be planted along with the chokers.
“That’s an ancillary benefit to this,” Sethuraman said. “We’ll add more trees and more shrubbery, landscaping and flowering plants.”
Work is expected to wrap up this summer.
The bulk of the funding for the roughly $1.1-million project, $770,900, comes from a federal grant under the Safe Routes to School program. The city would cover the remainder using local Measure M transportation funds.
Twitter: @LukeMMoney
