Costa Mesa : Freeway Project Resumes Monday

Construction of the second segment of the Costa Mesa Freeway extension will begin Monday and is expected to cause heavy congestion during the summer, Caltrans officials said Friday.

The $37-million segment will extend from Wilson to 19th streets in Costa Mesa and is scheduled for completion in mid-1992.

Four lanes in each direction will be built in the weed-strewn ditch that separates the northbound and southbound lanes of Newport Boulevard.

“Traffic is going to be a horror, especially during the summer because of the tourists and the beach crowds,” said Albert Miranda, a spokesman for the California Department of Transportation. “But we’re doing everything we can to make it easier on people.”

Merchants along Newport Boulevard were not scheduled to receive notification of the construction until today , Miranda said. He denied that this was late notice, explaining that no detours will be necessary for a while. He said only removal of vegetation is scheduled for Monday.

“Later on, we will have to close traffic to one lane in each direction, and the northbound transition from Newport Boulevard to northbound Fairview Road will be permanently closed,” Miranda said. “But I don’t have the dates for those things yet.”

Miranda said today’s notice to merchants by way of hand-delivered flyers is actually an improvement over Caltrans’ notification practices in the past.

“We used to not do that (deliver flyers) at all,” he said.

The notices say that Monday’s work may cause tie-ups due to gawking by motorists and that Caltrans will attempt to alleviate traffic problems by posting detours well in advance, publishing information in local newspapers and broadcasting construction updates on Highway Advisory Radio, frequency 530 on the AM band.

For years, merchants have expressed reservations about the project’s effect on their businesses, but Costa Mesa officials have gone along with Caltrans’ plans.

The first segment of the freeway extension, begun last March between Arlington Drive and Wilson Street, is expected to cost $12.36 million and be completed in early 1991.