NEWPORT BEACH : Residents Back Plan for New Ford Road

At the first of two public hearings on a major new area road, residents last week voiced some concern over the flow of traffic but were generally supportive of the project.

Speaking Thursday before the county’s Transportation Corridor Agencies, residents said they were pleased with plans to create a new Ford Road to handle the traffic increase that the proposed San Joaquin Hills Transportation Corridor is expected to generate. The new Ford Road will link the corridor to MacArthur Boulevard.

“We do support the realignment of Ford Road,” said Nancy Brundage, who spoke on behalf of residents of about 520 homes in the nearby Newport Hills community. “We’re very, very concerned about a direct connection to Ford through San Miguel (Drive).”

Ford Road currently serves as a borderline between Irvine and Newport Beach, and both cities share operation of the street. The realigned Ford Road will be contained in Irvine as part of the planned San Joaquin Hills Transportation Corridor, a 15-mile tollway that is being planned to stretch from the Corona del Mar Freeway to Interstate 5 in San Juan Capistrano.

The new Ford Road is expected to carry most of the traffic between the corridor and MacArthur Boulevard and is designed to reduce current levels of traffic. That diversion is expected to lessen the impact of the overall traffic increase in the area on nearby homeowners.

A number of issues about the new road are still outstanding, but residents are particularly concerned about the streets that will connect with Ford Road and the effect the traffic on those streets will have on their communities.

Four roads lead into the existing Ford Road. Some of these may be extended to join the new road, or else commuters will be forced to travel along the existing Ford Road and then turn onto roads that would take them to the new one.

For example, drivers traveling on San Miguel Drive currently come to the junction with Ford Road. Under the two proposals, they would either cross over the old road and continue straightaway to the new Ford Road, or they would have to veer through existing streets until they reach the new road.

Residents would prefer that the roads on the east end of Ford Road, such as San Miguel Road, be left as junctions and that another road, such as Hillside Drive, be used to carry the traffic onto the new road.

Currently, Ford Road handles about 12,000 vehicles a day. That number is expected to drop to 3,000 when traffic is diverted to the new road, which is expected to carry 25,000 cars daily.