For All Who Hate Freeways, Listen Up

More than 45,000 drivers are expected to use a new route linking Dana Point to Seal Beach, but it appeared Thursday that most of them hadn’t yet discovered it.

Thursday marked the opening of a 2.3-mile segment of the Street of the Golden Lantern in Dana Point and a 2-mile stretch of Moulton Parkway in Laguna Niguel. Those new roads now make it possible to drive from one end of the county to the other without getting on a freeway or Pacific Coast Highway.

Although authorities had no figures on first-day traffic, it appeared light.

“Maybe it’ll take a few days for people to know it’s open,” said Sheriff’s Lt. Tom Connor, who only heard about the new road openings on Thursday.

The 30-mile route begins in Dana Point at Street of the Golden Lantern and Dana Point Harbor Drive. Golden Lantern extends northeast until it becomes Moulton Parkway, and continues until Moulton becomes Irvine Center Drive.

That thoroughfare turns into Edinger Avenue in Tustin and continues through Santa Ana, Fountain Valley, Westminster, Huntington Beach and Seal Beach, where it ends.

“Residents will be able to travel from Dana Point to central Orange County entirely on surface streets,” said Mark Goodman, an aide to County Supervisor Thomas F. Riley of the 5th District, which includes the newly opened streets.

In addition to giving drivers an alternative to the freeways, the new route is expected to relieve congestion elsewhere, especially the Pacific Coast Highway intersections at Crown Valley Parkway in Laguna Niguel and at Del Obispo in Dana Point, Goodman said.

The cost of the projects was $24 million, $3 million of which came from Shapell Commercial and Industrial Corp. of Laguna Hills under an agreement with the county. Shapell is building about 5,000 homes in Laguna Niguel. The other $21 million came from an assessment district within the area.

Goodman said that the roads were completed about eight years ahead of schedule.