Even Now, Quake Still Ties Up S.F. Motorists : Construction: Damage to several freeways has yet to be repaired, leaving traffic a mess. Two key projects face rising costs and public opposition.

Vast stretches of viaducts and freeways crippled by the Loma Prieta earthquake more than a year ago are still waiting for repairs, their abandoned structures mocking worsening traffic below.

Almost a quarter of the city’s highways, including one of the nation’s most intricate systems of bridges and ramps, are closed and scheduled for refitting or demolition.

For the next four years, officials say, Bay Area motorists will see more freeway construction--$1.4 billion worth--than they have in the last four decades.

At least two projects--a stretch of the ill-fated I-880, the former Cypress structure in Oakland, and the closed double-deck Embarcadero Freeway--remain threatened by staggering costs and community opposition.

Neighborhood groups opposed to new construction have circulated petitions to block the projects while official cost estimates soared. Although a growing number of commuters are opting for mass transit, officials say 50,000 more motorists each year are straining existing roads. If repairs are not started soon, Caltrans says, traffic could slow even more.

“If you think you’re sitting in stop-and-go traffic now, in five years you may be sitting in just plain stop,” said Lisa Murphy, a spokeswoman for the California Department of Transportation.

In San Francisco, $282 million will be spent on five projects to retrofit or rebuild about seven miles of the city’s 34 miles of highways.

Among the structures slated for rebuilding is an elaborate series of interchanges that connect Route 480 with Interstate 80 just before the Bay Bridge. Only a half-mile long, the $80-million project is among the most intricate in the country structurally.

The Embarcadero Freeway, a 65-foot tall, double-deck highway that wraps around part of the city’s waterfront, is also scheduled for demolition. Competing plans put forth by Caltrans and San Francisco Mayor Art Agnos have battled for public support while the price tag has steadily risen.

Under Caltrans’ plan, the weakened columns would be reinforced in less than a year. But the state’s cost estimates for retrofitting nearly doubled, from $35 million last January to $72 million this month.

Preservationists, supported by Agnos, who loathed the looming structure in the first place, favored razing the thoroughfare to rebuild it on ground level, leaving San Franciscans with an unobstructed view of the bay.

Chinatown vendors who relied on the freeway for most of their customers say demolition will hurt their business. They recently collected 16,000 signatures in hopes of forcing city officials to stop the tear-down.

“As long as the freeway is not down, there’s still hope,” said Florence Fang, spokeswoman for the Chinatown Merchants Assn. “We can’t wait for them to rebuild the Embarcadero. By that time, people will have forgotten about Chinatown.”

Across the bay in Oakland, where planners are contemplating blueprints for a new Cypress structure, community opposition also is mounting.

Two proposals--one to rebuild the highway in its former location, the other to wind it around the railroad yards near the waterfront--are on the table. Resistance to the first plan predates the original freeway, but opposition to the latter also is growing.

The South Prescott Neighborhood Assn., a group representing 300 residents in a low- to middle-income area adjacent to where the planned highway would run, is spearheading a campaign to stop the Cypress project.

“We don’t want to move,” said Susan Boyle, one of the association’s organizers. She said the freeway is poorly planned and would expose the neighborhood to noise and air pollution.

The voices of protests and petitions coupled with rising costs have stalled the rebuilding effort, state planners said.

“Sure, it has slowed us down,” said Ellen Griffin, spokeswoman for the Metropolitan Transportation Commission in Oakland, a regional planning agency working with Caltrans on the damaged arteries. “I don’t know if that’s so bad. There’s a lot more thought going into the process.”

The slowdown is measurable in commuting time.

A 15-mile freeway drive from San Francisco’s International Airport to downtown took about 30 to 45 minutes during peak hours after the quake, about 10 minutes more than usual, according to Caltrans.

Now, such a drive can take up to an hour. In five years--if nothing is done about the congestion, and at the current growth rate--it could take up to two hours, Caltrans said.

Street-savvy Bay Area motorists have learned to use surface roads instead of highways to expedite their commute, officials said. Others leave their cars at home and use mass transit.

“It’s not as easy to get around as it used to be,” said Sy Mouber, a spokesman for the Bay Area Rapid Transit District. “I think people are saying, ‘To hell with it, I’ll take the train instead of fighting traffic.’ ”

Before the quake, slightly more than 200,000 passengers were using the underground trains. Now, more than 250,000 are taking the subway, he said.

According to George B. Dantzig, professor emeritus of operations research and computer science at Stanford University, even those numbers are not encouraging.

A researcher in urban planning who co-authored the book “Future City,” Dantzig said Californians will never lose their insatiable appetite for more roads.

Dantzig, who said he anticipated the Bay Area’s gridlock, added somewhat cynically that growth would end only when the world “is paved from one end to another.”

BAY AREA FREEWAY PROJECTS These six earthquake-repair projects will usher more freeway construction into the Bay Area than San Franciscans have seen in 40 years. EMBARCADERO VIADUCT (Route 480) Length 1 mile Repair cost (est.) $72 million Start To be demolished in March Repair time 3 years TERMINAL SEPARATION (I-80/route 480) Length One-half mile Cost $80 million Start No date set Repair Time 3 years CENTRAL VIADUCT (Route 101) Length 1 mile Cost $44 million Start June 1991 Repair Time 3 years SOUTHERN FREEWAY VIADUCT (I-280) Length 2 miles Cost $46 million Start Jan. 1992 Repair time Uncertain ALEMANY VIADUCT (I-280) Length 1 mile Cost $40 million Start Early 1992 Repair time Uncertain CYPRESS STRUCTURE (I-880; includes I-80/I-880/I-580 and West Grand Avenue interchanges) Length 2 1/2 miles Cost $1.2 billion Start Early 1994 Repair Time 3 years Source: CalTrans