Even $2 Billion Not Enough to Unclog Freeway, Study Says

Even with $2 billion worth of improvements to the Santa Ana Freeway and the surface streets surrounding it, traffic from future growth will leave the freeway hopelessly overloaded through central Orange County by the mid-1990s, according to a new study of what’s in store for an area that is already the county’s most heavily congested.

Moreover, the solutions that will work best to relieve the anticipated traffic jam--elevated bus lanes, a new freeway through exclusive neighborhoods in the Tustin foothills or down the Santa Ana River bed--could cost as much as $850 million and attract stiff political opposition, according to the study, which is scheduled for presentation today to the Orange County Transportation Commission.

The yearlong analysis, prepared by Gruen Associates of Los Angeles, looks at the area in central Orange County where four major highways already converge--the Garden Grove, Orange, Costa Mesa and Santa Ana freeways. It attempts to predict what will happen when traffic from two proposed new roads in the eastern part of the county, the Foothill and Eastern freeways, pours into the Santa Ana Freeway near Myford Road, exacerbating the present bottleneck.

The result is likely to be traffic that exceeds maximum capacity by 23% on the Santa Ana Freeway, even after two additional lanes plus two bus and car-pool lanes are built--improvements for which the county is still at least $600 million short in state and federal funding, the study concludes.

“Improvements to the circulation network will be essential if mobility and accessibility to and within the urbanized core of Orange County is to be maintained,” the study emphasizes, yet it also shows clearly there are no easy solutions to the problem.

Most surface street improvements, which would not cost as much or displace as many homes, would provide only “minimal” relief to the bottleneck problem, according to the study. So would proposed new freeway connections through commercial areas or relatively unpopulated areas, such as along Santiago Creek or Chapman Avenue.

Instead, the study’s findings indicate that the solutions that provide the best traffic relief are also likely to create the worst political problems.

Three of them involve new freeways of up to eight lanes through exclusive neighborhoods in Lemon Heights and east Tustin. One involves an $850-million extension of the Orange Freeway through developed areas to the San Diego Freeway. One involves construction of elevated bus lanes on either side of the Santa Ana Freeway.

No ‘Magic Answer’

“There isn’t a magic answer,” said Stan Oftelie, executive director of the Transportation Commission. “The approach of cutting a freeway connector through, you’re going through an area where there are about four attorneys per acre. It’s extremely difficult. It’s always been difficult. But the transportation problem doesn’t go away just because it’s difficult.”

The study stops short of recommending any of the alternatives. Analysis of possible new routes for the Eastern and Foothill freeways--designed to serve newly developing residential areas in the foothills and carry traffic from Riverside County to Irvine-area industrial parks--could provide new answers that aren’t yet apparent, the study suggests.

The study did eliminate some alternatives as either too troublesome or too ineffective. It advised further consideration of these:

- A new eight-lane freeway from the Garden Grove Freeway east to Panorama Heights, then southeasterly through Cowan Heights and Lemon Heights, connecting to the Eastern and Foothill freeways. In one alternative, about a mile of the freeway through the hills east of Newport Avenue would be put underground to reduce the impact on nearby homes.

Still, the route would displace 436 homes (compared to 490 without the tunneling) and 12 businesses. The cost would be $300 million, or $463 million for the tunneled version.

- An eight-lane freeway southeast along what is now La Colina Drive in Tustin, displacing 561 homes and eight businesses at a cost of $306 million.

Each of these alternatives would reduce traffic on the Santa Ana Freeway by about 64,000 cars a day--effectively eliminating the bottleneck--but help overload the Garden Grove Freeway by up to 34%.

- Extension of La Colina Drive west to 17th Street and east to the Eastern Freeway, widening it substantially along the entire route at a cost of $45 million. That would require displacement of only 56 homes and three businesses, but the alternative by itself would not significantly relieve the bottleneck.

- Improvements to Irvine Boulevard in Tustin and Irvine, in some areas to as much as eight lanes, at a cost of $4 million. The widening would accommodate much of the heavy future demand on that street but would provide only “minimal” relief for the bottleneck problem.

- A full, grade-separated interchange where Myford Road and Moulton Parkway intersect at a cost of $5 million, again providing only “minimal” bottleneck relief.

- An $850-million extension of the Orange Freeway from where it presently terminates at the Santa Ana Freeway south through Santa Ana and Costa Mesa to the San Diego Freeway. At a full eight lanes, the freeway extension would reduce traffic on the Santa Ana Freeway by 22,000 to 41,000 cars a day and “substantially” reduce traffic on the Costa Mesa Freeway as well.

On the other hand, unless it is built along the Santa Ana River bed in connection with a proposed flood-control project, it could mean “major displacements” of homes and businesses in established neighborhoods, the study shows.

- Elevated bus lanes on the Santa Ana Freeway, which Transportation Commission officials view as one of the most promising alternatives. The proposal would allow the median area of the freeway, now proposed for construction of car-pool lanes, to be used for regular travel lanes instead with bus and car-pool traffic channeled onto a high-speed “transitway.”

The proposal would cost anywhere from $143 million to $270 million, and would not require any homes to be displaced if the transitways can be built within the freeway’s existing right of way. But city officials near the freeway have already expressed opposition to any elevated transitways.

Residents’ Complaints

In fact, Tustin residents have complained in recent public meetings on the bottleneck problem that they are being asked to bear the costs for solving a traffic problem that results from development of new communities outside their borders.

A straw vote among 250 people at one meeting in January showed that the majority favored simply widening the Santa Ana Freeway to eight lanes, once the money is found.

Tustin Councilman Richard B. Edgar, a member of the Transportation Commission, said none of the alternatives outlined in the study is “acceptable.” But at the same time, the county is going to have to deal with the impacts of inevitable growth, he said.

“I think that all of us who moved into Orange County, if our vision was that its growth is not going to impact the traffic, I think we’ve been very shortsighted,” he said. “The challenge that I look upon (for) myself, and the city of Tustin, is to first of all understand in fine-grained detail exactly what’s happening. And then with that understanding, to go through all the possible solutions and find the one that’s going to be less painful than other options.”

A Move to the South?

Edgar said he hopes that new route studies for the Eastern Freeway will show that the bottleneck problem can be alleviated by moving the freeway farther south--connecting to the Santa Ana Freeway, for example, at the Laguna Freeway, rather than at Myford Road.

County officials will also look at the possible benefits of making two connections, at both Myford and the Laguna Freeway, Oftelie said.

The bottleneck study’s findings will be presented at a public meeting at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Tustin High School. The meeting will follow a 5-to-7 p.m. open house, at which time citizens can review and discuss the study exhibits with members of the study team.