New Start Time for Widening of Santa Ana Freeway Is 1991

A major widening project for the Santa Ana Freeway that was scheduled to begin in 1989 will be delayed 18 months, an Orange County Transportation Commission staff report says.

The report, which will be submitted to the commission at a meeting Monday, says the Orange County Transit District’s addition of a system of special lanes for bus and carpool traffic was the major reason for the delay.

Twelve other freeway projects in the county also are behind schedule by two to 24 months, according to the report.

The project to widen the Santa Ana Freeway to 12 lanes between the Costa Mesa and the Garden Grove freeways was scheduled to begin in July, 1989, but has been pushed back to January, 1991.

In addition to the system for bus and carpool traffic, modifications in some interchanges and further review also contributed to the 18-month delay, the commission report says.

However, Brian Pearson, OCTD’s director of development, said that even without the special system, “our feeling is that the delay would still have been another 10 to 12 months.”

He also said that OCTD’s $24-million contribution to the $110-million widening project would more than cover the cost of that addition, which would run along an existing railroad track.

“It is better to incorporate it. This would improve the features and redesign of the project,” Pearson said.

The longest of the delays included in the commission report is a proposed widening of Laguna Canyon Road, which has been pushed back two years. The state Coastal Commission opposes the project.

The report says another key reason for the delays was a shortage of state Department of Transportation personnel.

But Keith McKean, director of Caltrans’ new district office in Orange County, said the situation “was not as bad as it sounds.”

However, he conceded that the 18-month delay in the widening of the Santa Ana Freeway would place additional pressure on the county’s already congested highway system.

“The really serious problem from a delay standpoint is the Santa Ana Freeway,” McKean said. “That’s kind of the heart of the (traffic) system. But what we are doing there is still in the best public interest.”

He said the county’s battle with the Coastal Commission over the widening of Laguna Canyon Road also is a serious problem.

“The Coastal Commission is opposed, and there’s not a heck of a lot we can do about it but try to find alternatives to satisfy them. And we’re certainly trying to do that,” he said.