Week in Review : MAJOR EVENTS, IMAGES AND PEOPLE IN ORANGE COUNTY NEWS. : COUNTY : Freeway Extension Feasible but Costly

There was good news for the Orange County Transportation Commission. A report indicated that the 10 1/2-mile, six-lane extension of the Orange Freeway from the Santa Ana Freeway to the San Diego Freeway--a project that commissioners consider particularly important--is technically feasible.

The bad news: It will cost an estimated $810 million.

That’s a bundle, and while commission executive director Stan Oftelie said that “it doesn’t completely take it off the table,” he conceded that “the effort and energy that it would take to raise this amount of money makes the project somewhat questionable at this time.”