Countywide : Freeways to Get 11 More Message Boards

Eleven new electronic message boards will soon sprout up along Orange County freeways to advise motorists about traffic conditions.

The additions will increase to 17 the number of electronic freeway signs in Orange County by June, 1992, according to Ralph Blackburn, Operations Center supervisor. Within a decade, Blackburn said, there will be a sprawling web of 50 signs.

The signs are activated only when traffic conditions are abnormal, Blackburn said.

“If it’s normal for traffic to build up every day between 4 and 5 o’clock, people who regularly use that stretch of freeway will already know that’s the case,” Blackburn explained. “But we’ll give them a warning when things are not normal. . . .”

Three new message boards are being installed on the Costa Mesa Freeway northbound, north of Dyer Road, and southbound, north of Chapman Avenue, and on the eastbound Garden Grove Freeway, east of Harbor Boulevard.

The message boards are included in a package of nine traffic system management projects worth about $6.2 million approved by state transportation officials, including the installation of 17 ramp meters on the Orange Freeway.

Locations for the eight newest signs are:

* The eastbound Riverside Freeway, west of the Santa Ana Freeway and west of State College Boulevard.

* The westbound Riverside Freeway, east of Lakeview Avenue.

* The southbound San Diego Freeway, north of Seal Beach Boulevard and north of Harbor Boulevard.

* The northbound San Diego Freeway, south of MacArthur Boulevard.

* The northbound Orange Freeway near the Garden Grove Freeway.

* The southbound Orange Freeway, south of Lincoln Avenue.