Widening of Santa Ana Freeway Set Back

Help for crawling traffic on the Santa Ana Freeway between the Costa Mesa and Riverside freeways will arrive at least a year later then expected because of miscalculations in scheduling, a state Department of Transportation official said Tuesday.

Two phases of the four-phase project to double the freeway’s width have been delayed, said Bob Ramey, interim director of Caltrans’ Orange County office, because:

- The Federal Highway Administration, which is supplying money for the project, has asked for more planning details.

- The Orange County Transit District has asked for a “transitway” that would be used by buses and carpoolers.

- Caltrans schedules were overly optimistic.

“We always set a tight schedule under the presumption that things will go right,” he said. “But things don’t always go right.”

Caltrans schedules do not include a margin for error, Ramey said, because that would only invite delays.

The April, 1989, starting date for the first phase of widening on the 32-year-old, six-lane highway, from the San Diego Freeway to the Costa Mesa Freeway, remains unchanged, Ramey said.

But the widening between the Costa Mesa and the Garden Grove freeways will begin 13 months late, in August, 1990. Phase 3, from the Garden Grove Freeway to the Riverside Freeway will not start until November, 1992, also about a year behind schedule.

Phase 4, from the Riverside Freeway to the San Gabriel River, is still on track and should be under way by April, 1993, Ramey said.

What went wrong was a directive from Gov. George Deukmejian ordering government agencies to keep staff to a minimum, Ramey said. Under the directive, if extra help is needed it should be contracted from the private sector rather than hired for a short time and then fired.

The Santa Ana Freeway project is the first in the region to rely heavily on the work of private consulting firms, Ramey said. LSA Consultants of Irvine was selected to prepare an environmental impact report. Two other Irvine consultants, UMA Engineering and Van Dell & Associates, have also been contracted to do engineering work.

“We’re kind of feeling our way through,” Ramey said.

The legality of outside hiring has raised questions in the Transportation Employees Union and among its attorneys. Although Ramey did not believe that that legality would present a problem, he said answering those questions has slowed preliminary work on the project.

The new dates are not hard and fast either, Ramey said, because financing still is up in the air.

Ron Cole, an Orange County Transportation Commission senior manager, said at an all-day traffic symposium Monday that the widening could be finished by 1997. But the project, which will cost about $900 million, is $400 million short right now, and state and federal sources will not make those funds available until 2008. Cole said it will be up to local sources to raise $40 million a year, starting in 1989, to deliver the project on time.

Orange County Transportation District reserves will cover a $200-million transitway along Phase One of the expansion.

The commission delayed action Monday on a proposed countywide gas tax hike until September when the League of Cities, composed of city officials from across the county, will present its fund-raising proposals.

Other projects in the county that are behind schedule include:

- The Pacific Coast Highway widening between Beach Boulevard and Golden West Street, delayed from this September to January, 1988, to allow more time for design work.

- Laguna Canyon Road widening between Canyon Acres and El Toro Road will be two years late, with work scheduled to begin in June, 1990, Ramey said. The project must be resubmitted to the California Coastal Commission, which rejected it last year. Ramey said an agreement should be reached by December.

- Imperial Highway widening between Berry Street and Randolph Avenue will begin in May, 1989, three months late, because of a revision of the plan by the City of Brea.

The widening of 14 miles of the San Diego Freeway between the Corona del Mar Freeway and the San Gabriel River Freeway should start on schedule in the third week of July.