Roadwork, Not Signal, Is Cause of Highway Congestion

Dear Street Smart:

Coast Highway is being widened in Newport Beach, Corona del Mar and elsewhere at great expense to ease traffic problems. In my judgment, there is a traffic light on the highway at Promontory Drive west of Jamboree Road that should be eliminated.

Removing the signal would cause little inconvenience to Promontory Point residents. A right turn in and a right turn out would still be possible, and there are two entrance-exit points leading to and from Promontory Point to the more lightly traveled Bayside Drive. A few Promontory Point apartment dwellers would complain, but thousands of Coast Highway commuters would rejoice as traffic flow in both directions improves tremendously.

At the Balboa Bay Club just up the road, by comparison, there is no traffic light, only one entrance and exit, and considerably more traffic.

Roger Brown

Newport Beach

You’re not expecting any invitations to holiday parties at Promontory Point, eh?

Kidding aside, the signal of which you speak has become something of a headache for motorists along Coast Highway in recent months, and Newport Beach officials are the first to admit it.

The problem stems from the highway construction. According to Rich Edmonston, Newport Beach traffic engineer, the traffic signal was installed at the time Promontory Point was built. It was rigged with a detector in the pavement that changes the lights only when a car pulls up.

Unfortunately, the detector has been uprooted several times during the construction, and when it is not in use, the signal reverts to functioning by a simple timed sequence. When that happens, cars on Coast Highway can be brought to a screeching halt even though no one is pulling out of Promontory Point.

There is some good news, however. The detector for the signal should be back in working order soon--probably before April 1, when the road construction is to be completed, Edmonston said. Moreover, that light will be synchronized to work with a signal at the Jamboree Road intersection, he said.

There is little chance that the light would ever be removed altogether, he said. Motorists can pull onto the busy Coast Highway far more easily when traffic is controlled by a signal.

As for the Balboa Bay Club situation: Under the terms of a new lease agreement, a signal similar to the one at Promontory Point is to be installed soon.