NEWPORT BEACH : Road Construction to Hinder Traffic

Motorists will have another bullet to bite beginning today when the next in a series of road projects along Coast Highway gets under way.

The latest project, which involves installing a storm drain under the Arches Bridge at the Newport Boulevard crossing, will funnel two-lane eastbound traffic into one lane near the bridge. The round-the-clock construction work should be completed in seven days, according to Benjamin B. Nolan, director of the Newport Beach Public Works Department.

The project is one of a series of efforts aimed at eventually widening Coast Highway between MacArthur Boulevard in Newport Beach and Brookhurst Street in Huntington Beach. By spring of 1992, the 5.7-mile stretch--with the exception of about 1 1/4 miles between Newport Boulevard and Dover Drive--will be widened from four to six lanes, Nolan said.

The Coast Highway project is under way at the same time sewer lines are being installed along Bayside Drive between Coast Highway and Marguerite Avenue. That seven-month project will at times close Bayside Drive, which runs parallel to Coast Highway through Corona del Mar and which often is used by some motorists to avoid traffic on Coast Highway.

At the same time, Nolan said, the city is preparing for a “very difficult project,” expected to begin in September and take more than a year, which will add a third lane to Newport Boulevard from 32nd Street to Coast Highway.

“It’s a great deal of work for a modest-sized community such as this,” Nolan said. “Unfortunately, some inconvenience is unavoidable.”

The construction has worried merchants who say business has suffered and has annoyed motorists who have at times sat through three cycles of light changes before getting through an intersection, Nolan said.

Other work that is part of the Coast Highway widening project is continuing between Bayside Drive and Jamboree Road. It is expected to be completed by the end of May. The work between Newport Boulevard and Highland Street is expected to conclude by January, Nolan said.

Also under way is the widening of Coast Highway between Highland Street in Newport Beach and Brookhurst Street in Huntington Beach. That phase of the project, which is the most difficult since it includes construction of a new Santa Ana River Bridge, should be completed in spring of 1992, Nolan said.