California 73 Ready at Last : A Bang-Up Freeway Opening

Opening ceremonies for the long-delayed Corona del Mar (California 73) Freeway went off with a bang Monday when balloons and ribbon sent aloft tangled with power lines, causing an electrical explosion and a brief power outage to thousands of homes and businesses.

The 66,000-volt lines above the Jamboree Road overpass bordering Irvine and Newport Beach did not snap, however, and there was only a split-second cut in power when the blast occurred at about 11:15 a.m., said Southern California Edison Co. area manager James Kennedy.

“The lights may have flickered, but that’s about it,” Kennedy said.

The explosion occurred seconds after an antique 1925 White touring bus loaded with eight state and local dignitaries drove through a red ribbon anchoring the multicolored balloons, officially opening a 2.1-mile stretch of a freeway that was in the planning stages for about 10 years.

Cited by the state’s Little Hoover Commission as one of the worst examples of bureaucratic bungling in California history, the freeway was supposed to be completed seven years ago--to Corona del Mar.

No Further Work

But state Department of Transportation spokeswoman Pat Reid said the 2.1-mile stretch linking the freeway from the San Diego Creek bridge at MacArthur Boulevard in Irvine north to Red Hill Avenue in Costa Mesa is the last work to be done on the roadway under the revised plans.

In fact, only the three northwesterly lanes were opened to traffic Monday. Transportation officials said striping and other work on the southeasterly lanes will take a few more days. Work on the revised freeway plans was nevertheless finished about eight months ahead of schedule.

“It’s a very exciting, wonderful experience seeing the freeway finally open,” said state Sen. Marian Bergeson (R-Newport Beach), recalling the delays in constructing the first stretch of freeway built in Orange County since 1977.

“I think if we all look back, in 1973 we had cleared all the environmental hurdles, we were all ready to go,” Bergeson said. “It says something about the system at that point in time.”

Complimenting municipal, county and state transportation officials for their efforts in pursuing the project, Bergeson said: “We are never going to let those delays happen again because we have the forces now to put things together and make it happen the way it should.”

County Supervisor Bruce Nestande, chairman of the state Transportation Commission, said local officials “sat back for too long and didn’t get our fair share (of state transportation funds).”

The freeway is expected to reduce congestion near John Wayne Airport and enable motorists to escape traffic signals on Bristol Street.

The San Joaquin Hills Transportation Corridor may eventually connect to the freeway and carry traffic as far south as San Juan Capistrano, but construction on that highway is not expected to begin before 1990.

Rep. Robert E. Badham (R-Newport Beach), California Transportation Commission Director Leo J. Trombatore, Assemblyman Gil Ferguson (R-Newport Beach) and county Transportation Commission Chairman James Roosevelt also spoke at the ribbon-cutting ceremony.