Santa Ana Freeway Double-Deck Plan Rises Again : Transportation: Congressional committee approves funds for studying the possibility, which has been rejected before.

Almost unnoticed among federal highway grant requests approved by a key congressional committee on Thursday was $11.2 million to study the feasibility of double-decking a portion of the Santa Ana Freeway.

Buena Park and five cities in Los Angeles County favor the double-decking as an alternative to plans to widen the freeway to 12 lanes. The widening project could eliminate three auto malls and a number of other business along the route that generate vital sales tax revenue.

Buena Park, Commerce, Downey, La Mirada, Norwalk and Santa Fe Springs recently formed the Interstate 5 Consortium to battle what they view as a ravenous, asphalt-spewing monster.

The widening is progressing through central Orange County, but construction of the section north of the Riverside Freeway is seven to eight years away. While cities south of the Riverside Freeway have given their approval to the I-5 widening, the six northernmost cities along the route have long sought other methods to relieve freeway congestion.

“There are several auto dealers along that stretch,” said Buena Park Mayor Don R. Griffin, his city’s representative to the I-5 Consortium. “We respect them and they are important to us. Buena Park has a very small strip between the Los Angeles County border and the 91 freeway. We have our civic center there, which would also be in jeopardy.”

“In many ways Buena Park has never recovered from the original freeway, when it was first built more than 30 years ago,” Griffin added. “There were improvements promised by Caltrans, including access into our downtown area, that were never done. It divided the town and stripped vital economic interests from our community. We still haven’t totally rebounded.”

In Buena Park, in addition to the City Hall, an auto mall and a Mercedes-Benz dealership may have to move if the freeway is widened.

It is not yet clear which properties are definitely at risk because Caltrans has not decided whether the freeway will be expanded on the northbound or southbound sides, or both.

Just across the border in La Mirada, Gateway Chevrolet occupies the La Mirada Auto Center, most of which is still under construction. Still farther north, near Knott Avenue, there is a new medical building and an Office Club store.

And just south of the Santa Fe Springs Auto Centerare a Bob’s Big Boy eatery, the Sandman Motel and a new business complex. North of Firestone Boulevard there is a neighborhood of older homes broken up by a new Sheraton Hotel complex. And at Pioneer Boulevard in Norwalk, there are a Quality Inn Motel and a Sizzler restaurant.

City officials agree on the need to dramatically increase the freeway’s traffic capacity. They simply disagree on how it is to be done.

The concept of double-decking the Santa Ana Freeway is resurrected every few years. Most recently it was rejected by the California Transportation Commission in September, 1989.

The commission decided that despite soaring costs of acquiring rights of way for widening, double decking would cost more, delay the project in central Orange County for another year, and require new environmental studies.

Barry Rabbitt, Caltrans’ I-5 project chief, said that double-decking could cost twice the estimated $578 million needed for widening this section of freeway.

TOLLWAY HEARING BEGINS

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