Temporary Fix for Busy Interchange Isn’t in the Works

Dear Street Smart:

Caltrans really made a mistake when it decided not to widen the northbound Santa Ana/Orange connector from the eastbound Garden Grove Freeway. I know they are planning to rebuild that intersection “soon” (in Caltrans years), but no traffic problem in Orange County was more amenable to a simple solution than that one.

Paving over a little ice plant for a hundred or so feet or even restriping the shoulder for a short time would have had a real impact on a real problem. Caltrans is so unresponsive, they really just don’t want citizen input.

Thomas Walton, Anaheim

Well, the point will become moot within the next two months when Caltrans expects to begin work on that interchange. But some motorists probably share your frustration that a seemingly simple solution could not have been provided for a period.

In fact, Caltrans decided about a year and a half ago to restripe the connector so that its two lanes would not merge into one. But it then nixed the idea because of impending reconstruction plans for the interchange.

“To Band-Aid any solution would not have been an answer,” spokesman Albert Miranda said.

There were several reasons not to proceed, Miranda explained. Traffic engineers and planners, for one, find that motorists are confused by temporary changes. Drivers would come to expect both of those lanes to continue--a tough habit to break later on when the connector would have to return to one lane because of construction.

Also, the shoulder was not designed for regular freeway use. To handle the traffic load, it would have had to have been torn out and rebuilt. With an improvement plan already on the books, Caltrans deemed the shoulder too expensive to reconstruct to be used for only a short time.

Finally, Miranda said that to extend the two lanes would have made it harder for traffic on the connector to merge when it hits traffic from the other connector that meets up with it. Forcing the traffic sooner into one lane makes the next merge easier.

Dear Street Smart:

Northbound on Magnolia Street in Huntington Beach, when you enter the left-turn pocket at Atlanta Avenue, you trigger both a left arrow and a green light on the signal in front of the lane. What does this mean? Does the southbound side get a green light, also?

A. Bagdasaria, Huntington Beach

Nope, the southbound side does not. A green arrow always indicates that your turn is protected, according to Bruce Gilmer, a Huntington Beach associate traffic engineer. If a green light also comes on with the arrow, it does not diminish this protection. On the other hand, if you get a green light at a turn pocket signal but no arrow, you may only turn when safe.

Dear Street Smart:

Can anyone explain why there is a stop sign on the newly opened southbound on-ramp to the Santa Ana Freeway from Jeffrey Road in Irvine? It is dangerous because it makes it difficult for motorists to accelerate to freeway speed before merging with traffic.

If the sign is intended to be a temporary substitute for a metered signal, it is a poor one. Unlike a signal, it doesn’t remain green during non-peak hours. And, incidentally, the same ramp got along just fine without a signal for several months before its closing for realignment.

Chuck Zaremba, Laguna Hills

You’re right on the money--that sign is a temporary measure until a ramp signal can be installed. And though you’ll probably find it odd, Caltrans is glad that the sign makes you stop before entering the freeway. The signal will do the same thing when it’s in place.

It seems that the on-ramp has a series of curves just past that sign that couldn’t be eliminated during the reconstruction because of right of way limitations, according to Caltrans spokesman Albert Miranda. The stop sign is meant to keep motorists from taking those turns too fast.

“It’s to slow them down so they are at a safer speed,” Miranda said.

A full stop also helps the two lanes of traffic on that ramp merge into one after the sign, he added.

When the signal is in place, it will continue to stop every car. But at peak periods the wait to enter the freeway will be longer. As for the need to meter the on-ramp at all, Miranda said the ramp may not have previously had a meter because it was already scheduled to be rebuilt.

The meters ensure that many cars won’t be forced to merge into heavy freeway traffic at once. Instead, the signals send a few cars at a time, making less of a disruption for the freeway traffic flow to absorb.