3 More Roadways May Be Improved as ‘Super Streets’

With Beach Boulevard already being redesigned as a streamlined “super street,” the Orange County Transportation Commission on Monday will consider choosing Katella Avenue, Imperial Highway and the 21-mile Moulton Parkway corridor as the next three super-street projects.

Super streets are major thoroughfares upgraded with synchronized signals, bus turnouts, dual left-turn-lane pockets, fewer driveways, no on-street parking if feasible, and in some cases elevated ramps called “flyovers” that carry through traffic over congested intersections.

However, commission officials said last week that when design studies are completed, there may be enough money available for construction work on only one of the streets, pitting cities against each other for the right to have a super-street project.

For example, the commission was scheduled to choose only two new super-street projects, but commission member Clarice A. Blamer, a Brea councilwoman, helped persuade officials to keep Imperial Highway on the list because all three streets scored high in technical rankings.

“Yorba Linda is very interested in improving Imperial Highway because north county has a terrible traffic problem and it is parallel to the Riverside Freeway, which also has horrendous traffic,” Blamer said.

There are 21 streets on OCTC’s list of potential super-street projects, but nearly all depend on the future availability of construction funds.

The commission has about $7.5 million earmarked for super-street improvements. Cost estimates for the three proposed super streets to be considered at Monday’s meeting are still pending.

The three projects are:

- Katella Avenue--14 miles from the San Gabriel River Freeway in Los Alamitos to the Costa Mesa Freeway in Orange. Average daily use: 448,000 cars.

- Imperial Highway--11 miles from Beach Boulevard in La Habra to the Riverside Freeway in Anaheim. Average daily use: 399,300 cars.

- Moulton Parkway--21 miles that include a tiny segment of Edinger Avenue at the Costa Mesa Freeway in Santa Ana and eventually end at Coast Highway in Dana Point, via Irvine Center Drive and Street of the Golden Lantern. Average daily use: 462,000 cars.

Ed Mountford, the commission’s special projects manager, said special “flyover” ramps are contemplated for Moulton Parkway where it crosses El Toro Road.

Plans for such ramps on Beach Boulevard have been abandoned because of stiff opposition from some cities and businesses along the route.

The redesign of Beach Boulevard is scheduled for completion early next year, Mountford said. Construction is expected to begin several months later.

Construction of other super-street projects will not start until 1992, he said.