Corona del Mar Freeway’s Final Stretch Opens Monday

Through more than a decade, the Corona del Mar Freeway was proposed, opposed, funded, unfunded, planned, replanned and named for a community that now it probably never will reach.

It was supposed to be completed seven years ago, but it was delayed by intergovernmental squabbling, long environmental studies and funding disputes. The state’s Little Hoover Commission once said it was one of the state’s worst examples of bureaucratic bungling.

But all that will be behind Orange County motorists Monday when, at the close of a 10:30 a.m. ceremony, an antique car carries a load of local dignitaries through a ribbon stretched across the freeway’s three westbound lanes at Jamboree Road.

First Stretch Opened in 1977

Motorists parked on the westbound Jamboree on-ramp will then be turned loose for their first taste of the new, and final, 2.1-mile stretch of California 73.

The event will open the first stretch of freeway built in Orange County since the initial section of the Corona del Mar Freeway was completed in 1977.

That section extends from the San Diego Freeway to just past Red Hill Avenue in Costa Mesa. State freeway planners had envisioned it eventually bending south at MacArthur Boulevard and extending into Corona del Mar.

But the new section, which takes the freeway to MacArthur at the San Diego Creek bridge in Irvine, will end the freeway, according to state Department of Transportation spokeswoman Pat Reid. There are no further plans for the Corona del Mar Freeway, she said.

Eventually, the San Joaquin Hills Transportation Corridor, proposed by county transportation officials, might connect to the freeway and carry traffic as far south as the San Juan Capistrano area.

The first phases of construction on that highway are not expected before 1990. Neither state nor federal transportation authorities have budgeted funds for the corridor, and since nearly half of the projected construction funds depend on fees paid by developers, the pace of land development probably will affect construction scheduling.

Caltrans engineer Stan Dick said Friday that it was still uncertain whether the new freeway’s eastbound lanes will be open in time for Monday’s ceremonies. Those lanes still require striping, which will be done within a few days, he said.

Even so, Caltrans spokeswoman Reid said, the project will have been completed eight months ahead of schedule.

A Means of Escape

The new freeway will offer motorists heading into and out of the Newport Beach area a means of escaping the clogged streets near John Wayne Airport.

Northbound motorists will be able to enter the freeway at MacArthur and escape the traffic signals along Bristol Street, the previous route to the northbound freeways. Motorists also will be able to drive onto and off of the freeway at Jamboree and at Bristol east of Birch Street.

Motorists will travel along three lanes in each direction, separated by a 102-foot-wide center divider. Bicycle paths beside Bristol Street were included as part of the project.

Scheduled to appear at dedication ceremonies Monday are Rep. Robert E. Badham (R-Newport Beach), state Sen. Marian Bergeson (R-Newport Beach) and Caltrans Director Leo J. Trombatore.

Reid said motorists wanting to be among the first onto the freeway may park their cars on the looping Jamboree Road on-ramp to the westbound lanes.