Major Surgery Nears for Santa Ana Freeway : Construction: A key stretch of Orange County’s congested ‘Main Street’ will be widened during the next five years.

Like it or not, here it comes. Concrete trucks and cranes will soon descend on a 4-mile stretch of the Santa Ana Freeway that cuts through this city, beginning the most ambitious and difficult highway reconstruction effort in Orange County’s history.

During the next five years, the narrow slice of freeway will be rebuilt, from its confluence with the Costa Mesa Freeway to the swirling, spaghetti bowl of concrete known as the Orange Crush, where the Santa Ana, Orange and Garden Grove freeways meet to create the nation’s fifth-busiest intersection.

Bridges will be toppled and wider replacements built. Towering new transit ways will rise in the sky. Millions of cubic yards of earth will be moved. Six new lanes will be added to the Santa Ana Freeway, now among the most overburdened in the nation.

The $475-million effort is not expected to be completed until about 1996. In the meantime, upward of 180,000 cars a day will continue to trundle through the construction zone as workers undertake a job akin to changing the engines on a Boeing 747 while it’s flying at 30,000 feet.

But don’t expect traffic to come to a standstill.

California Department of Transportation officials are confident that congestion on the stretch will be no worse than right now. As evidence, they note that traffic speeds have actually increased during the widening of the Santa Ana Freeway through Tustin and Irvine, which is expected to be completed in late 1992.

Such assurances aside, even the project’s biggest boosters admit that the Santa Ana widening will cause headaches, if not for freeway commuters then at least for residents in neighborhoods straddling the highway, who will be forced to contend with noisy construction trucks and months-long traffic detours.

“I think it’s a mistake to sell the public on this idea that this is a no-pain project,” said Santa Ana Mayor Daniel H. Young, a staunch widening supporter. “I think we should be honest and tell them that the fact is, we’re going to experience inconvenience, pain and hardship. But it’s going to be worth it.”

When completed, the wider freeway promises to be a boon for commuters and commerce alike.

Not only will motorists be able to get from the proverbial point A to point B much faster, but the upgrade will vastly improve what is widely recognized as the county’s chief avenue of commerce.

Half of the county’s residents live within 3 miles of the Santa Ana Freeway. Two-thirds of all jobs are in the corridor. The project in Santa Ana--together with widening work on the same freeway north to the Riverside Freeway, which is scheduled to begin in 1996, and the nearly finished job south through Irvine--will give a badly needed face lift to a 1950s-era highway well past its prime.

“The I-5 is our Main Street. It’s Main Street Orange County,” Young said. “Without this widening, our economy in central Orange County is going to stall out. . . . This is the most important infrastructure project that will be undertaken in our lifetime.”

Commuters have already had a glimpse of what’s to come. More than a year ago, crews toppled the 4th Street bridge over the freeway and have been busy in the months since building a sleek replacement.

But inconvenience from the loss of the bridge will pale compared with problems related to work to come. Reconstruction of the entire Santa Ana stretch will prove formidable, far more taxing on engineers and residents than the effort through Irvine, experts say.

Brent Felker, a Caltrans engineer, said the Irvine segment had the benefit of more parallel local streets and far less congestion.

But he, along with other Caltrans officials, remains confident that the Santa Ana work will not prove a burden for commuters.

“I think the freeway won’t see increased congestion during construction,” he said.

The initial Santa Ana efforts will focus on the Orange Crush, the knot of asphalt and concrete where 470,000 motorists a day travel a maze of interchanges and connectors linking the Santa Ana Freeway with the Orange and Garden Grove freeways.

Motorists have spotted crews already on the scene, laying the groundwork for construction that will soon begin in earnest. The first and most noticeable signs of progress will be demolition of the La Veta Avenue overpass, probably in late October.

Within a few months, work will also begin to rebuild the congested interchange where the Santa Ana and Costa Mesa freeways meet. The widening will then continue in phases all along the Santa Ana stretch. Various bridges will be demolished and rebuilt, new overpasses built and the banks of the freeway gouged out so more lanes can be shoehorned in.

Long one of the most congested junctions in Southern California, the short stretch in Santa Ana will be transformed into perhaps the most technically advanced freeway in the region. Among the improvements:

* Remote-controlled TV cameras will be installed at various spots during construction to monitor traffic during and after the work.

* Two elevated transit ways for car pools and commute buses will link the highway with the Orange Freeway on the north and the Costa Mesa Freeway on the south. These exclusive lanes will eliminate the need for car-pool vehicles to merge with other traffic in order to switch from one freeway to another. The transit ways connecting the Santa Ana and Costa Mesa freeways should prove particularly impressive, with the lanes rising high above the ground on concrete piers for more than a mile.

* Four new general-flow lanes will be added to the highway’s existing six lanes. To make way for them, bridges and overpasses along the route will be uprooted and replaced with structures with more space beneath them.

* At the Orange Crush, a special “collector-distributor road”--a sort of high-speed frontage road--will funnel cars off the southbound freeway lanes so they can more easily reach the busy Broadway and Main Street exits. Caltrans officials say the special, three-lane roadway should greatly reduce the number of cars weaving across traffic, which causes much of the current congestion.

* Transitions among all the freeways along the route will be improved, with lanes added and new structures built to alleviate bottlenecks that now make the intersections a commute nightmare.

* The Main Street bridge over the freeway will be rebuilt, with new ramps for car-pool lanes. In addition, Broadway will have a new, northbound off-ramp, helping improve access to the MainPlace/Santa Ana mall.

“The system will have the capacity to handle the projected traffic through the year 2010 and probably beyond,” said Barry Rabbitt, a Caltrans deputy director shepherding the widening effort.

The results should be predominantly free-flowing traffic along a stretch that is now stop-and-go for three hours in the morning and three hours in the evening every workday--and for long periods on weekends as well.

Santa Ana, in particular, could benefit from what is expected to be a kinder, gentler freeway.

The city has ambitious redevelopment dreams for parcels near MainPlace, as well as for blocks surrounding the Bowers Museum and the Amtrak station. Among the most ambitious is a grove of skyscrapers planned by a Japanese conglomerate, featuring a 32-story office building on a parcel across from MainPlace.

If those projects succeed, the upgraded freeway will have played more than a bit part. “It’s going to be a really handsome freeway, if you can call a freeway handsome--clean and new and wide and modern,” said Bob Hoffman, Santa Ana’s redevelopment and real estate manager.

“I would hope there would be some spinoff. . . . I would think a tenant who is considering leasing space would take into account that the freeway is going to be improved and actually flow,” he said.

But before all that can happen, there will be the dreary days of construction. Although Caltrans plans not to close any lanes on the freeways during construction, several connectors will be shut down for extended periods. Among them:

* The transition between the northbound Santa Ana Freeway and the westbound Garden Grove Freeway will be closed for more than two years.

* Also in coming weeks, the eastbound Garden Grove Freeway connector to the southbound Santa Ana Freeway will be closed for nearly a year.

* Lanes connecting the southbound Santa Ana Freeway with the westbound Garden Grove Freeway will be closed for a few months later this year.

* In 1993, the transition road connecting the northbound Santa Ana Freeway with the southbound Costa Mesa Freeway will be shut for more than 18 months.

* The northbound Santa Ana Freeway connector to northbound Costa Mesa Freeway will be closed for half a year, probably beginning in late 1993.

To ease the effects of such closures, Caltrans is marshaling a formidable effort to help keep traffic moving. Contractors will be required to install “gawk screens,” those flat sheets of particleboard mounted on concrete barriers that shield construction activity from the eyes of motorists.

Caltrans also plans to deploy its successful Orange Angel free towing service along the Santa Ana construction zone. The bright-orange tow trucks have been given much of the credit for keeping traffic moving during the Irvine and Tustin work.

And Caltrans plans an ambitious public relations effort and, as usual, will post signs along the route alerting motorists of coming ramp closures and other events.

Caltrans officials readily acknowledge that despite their best efforts, problems are likely.

“Whenever you make a change, you get an impact for some period of time,” said Rabbitt, Caltrans boss for the project. “In spite of all the public information and signs, some people will be unaware. Ultimately, people alter their travel patterns, and the problem subsides. In some cases it gets even better.

“A good example is when we closed 4th Street,” he said. “For seven or eight days there were problems, but then it settled down.”

Fixing The 5 The Santa Ana Freeway (Interstate 5) expansion project will soon face its most difficult challenge. The 4-mile section that runs through Santa Ana will double in size to six lanes in each direction, requiring the rebuilding of five bridges and two major interchanges. When work ends in 1996, traffic should flow more freely. But with gain comes some pain: Closures will occur along the route, and the first major detours will begin this month. Road Blocks Major crossings along the route will be rebuilt to make way for the expanded freeway. Some streets that pass under the freeway will be restricted, and some bridges that carry streets over the freeway will be torn down and rebuilt. Some ramps will be closed during reconstruction. Detours will be finalized before specific projects begin and then publicized.

La Veta-Bristol: Closes later this month for more than a year. Main Street: Closes early in 1993 for almost two years. 17th St.: Restricted late 1992 and early 1994, for two to three months each time. Car-pool Exit and Entrance: New ramps allow direct access between surface street and car-pool lanes.

Lincoln Avenue: Closes early in 1993 for about two years. Grand Avenue: Restricted in mid-1992 for almost three years. Car-pool Exit and Entrance: Cutaway shows direct access between surface streets and car-pool lanes.

4th St.: Presently closed; reopens in late November. 1st St.: Closes early in 1992 for about a year. Costa Mesa Freeway Interchange

* Northbound Santa Ana connector to southbound Costa Mesa closes in mid-1993 for almost two years. * Northbound Santa Ana connector to northbound Costa Mesa closes late in 1993 for six months. The Orange Crush The confluence of the Santa Ana, Orange (57) and Garden Grove (22) freeways, the nation’s fifth busiest interchange, will be reconstructed to allow a wider Santa Ana Freeway to pass through, and new transition ramps will be able to accommodate the heavy traffic that presently overwhelms the junction. The rebuilding requires detours around only three major connectors, which shut down this month for periods ranging from one month to two years. Southbound 5 Ramp to Westbound 22: Closes later this month for a few months.

“THE HORSESHOE”: Current fuding will not improve this ramp. It may become expanded to two lanes if funding becomes available. Eastbound 22 Ramp to Southbound 5: Closes later this month for about a year.

Flower Street Exit: Closes permanently. Northbound 5 Ramp to Westbound 22: Closes later this month until late 1993.

Car-Pool Connections One lane on each side of the expanded Santa Ana Freeway will be for car pools. New ramps will connect the lanes to those on the Orange and Costa Mesa freeways, eliminating lane changes at these interchanges. Shown below is the Santa Ana-Orange freeways link. Car-Pool Transition: Allows direct access between car-pool lanes on both freeways. Easing the Flow

Demand to use the freeway through Santa Ana exceeds its capacity, engineers say. The expansion corrects the problem and handles anticipated traffic growth through 2010.

2010: 326,000 vehicles per day

Construction dates are tentative and subject to change.

Source: California Department of Transportation

Text by DANNY SULLIVAN