Fair, Concert Traffic Slows, Doesn’t Stop : Congestion: Midway and Estefan fans converge, but a police plan this year apparently worked, officers say.

Traffic slowed to a crawl--but not to a halt--around the Orange County Fairgrounds on Friday night as about 55,000 people flocked to rides, carnival games and a sellout concert by pop singer Gloria Estefan, police said,

Although cars circled at a turtle’s pace past full parking lots on Fairview Avenue and Fair Drive Friday evening, “traffic was pretty civil,” Lt. Alan Kent said.

“It’s just slow getting all the traffic into the parking places. But I don’t think this is anything worse than any high-volume concert” at the Pacific Amphitheatre, Kent remarked. Although some motorists yelled at his officers, “We’ve had no special problems,” he said. He and other officers attributed the busy--but not gridlocked--streets to a month-old fair traffic plan that, among other things, put more than 50 traffic patrol officers on the streets instead of the 20 assigned in previous years.

The performance by pop signer Estefan drew a full house of 15,000 at the amphitheater.

Some city leaders feared that the concert crowd, plus the thousands attending the fair Friday night, could create Costa Mesa’s worst traffic snarl since 1986, when the Beach Boys played the amphitheater during the fair.

And when amphitheater gates opened at 6 p.m. Friday, two hours before concert time, nearby homeowners braced for an onslaught of noise and traffic. But though bumper-to-bumper traffic inched forward at less than 5 m.p.h. from the Costa Mesa Freeway to Fair Drive, it was, at least, moving. And some of the usual problems did not materialize.

The traffic was, “like, pretty bad,” said a 17-year-old whose car broke down on Fair Drive 200 feet from the main entrance to the fair. But, she said, “I was here two years ago and it was worse then.”

Added a skeptical Patricia McGregor, a 33-year resident of Princeton Street whose home is a block from the amphitheater: “It’s very quiet. But then the concert hasn’t started yet.”

But this year, McGregor--and top Costa Mesa officials--were hoping that the month-old, $20,830 traffic plan would prevent some headaches.

Among the key elements of the 1991 Orange County Fairgrounds Traffic Control Plan effective during through the 12-day fair’s run:

* On concert nights, more than 50 traffic officers were assigned to patrol streets near the fairgrounds and amphitheater--double the number assigned last year.

* Two police helicopters would monitor traffic.

* As in previous years, parking on streets nearest the fair was restricted to neighborhood residents and guests. But this year, additional officers would aggressively ticket interlopers--and tow trucks stood by to remove illegally parked vehicles “within 15 minutes” of discovery, Lt. Al Kent said.

* When concerts end around 10:30 p.m., officers were to speed traffic from the fairground out of Costa Mesa and on to local freeways. Officers would bypass traffic lights and direct cars with hand signals, Kent said.

“We are hoping not to have any gridlocking or bottlenecking situation,” he said as the evening began. “With the fact that we’ve added extra people and have a special plan for 1991, we’re hoping our efforts will pay off tonight.”

There were other efforts Friday to ease congestion--new auxiliary parking lots on Fairview and, for the first time, Pacific Amphitheatre was offering a special “quick-park” deal.

The tickets allowed concert-goers to park in a lot on Irvine’s Main Steet, then take a shuttle bus to the concert. By Friday evening, more than 550 of the 1,000 spaces were sold, amphitheater general manager Susan Rosenbluth said, and expressed the hope that it should “mitigate traffic.”