Local News in Brief : Countywide : Commission OKs Deal for Freeway Widening

The California Transportation Commission, meeting in Costa Mesa, voted Friday to let Orange County use money from the sale of an unused Pacific Electric trolley right-of-way in Garden Grove to buy other land for the widening of the Santa Ana Freeway.

Friday’s action could spare some businesses on the east side of the freeway from removal due to the widening project, officials said. The names of the businesses affected were not immediately available.

The Orange County Transit District, which previously used state funds to purchase the Pacific Electric line for a now-abandoned transit project, has been negotiating to sell the vacant land to the city of Garden Grove for about $6 million. City officials consider the weed-strewn strip an eyesore.

Without Friday’s state commission vote, the transit district would have had to return proceeds from the sale to the state.

Friday’s action allows the transit agency to use the funds toward the purchase of an unused Southern Pacific railroad right-of-way next to the Santa Ana Freeway for use in a major widening project.

The transit district is involved in the freeway widening project because it is paying for a special bus guideway to be constructed in the freeway median. Guideways are lanes reserved for buses. Purchase of the Southern Pacific land may enable OCTD’s bus guideway to be built at freeway level instead of on elevated ramps above the median, cutting construction costs, officials said.

Negotiations are still under way for the purchase of the Southern Pacific right-of-way, but county officials said this week they expect the price to be about $13 million.