Freeway Project to Pose New Obstacles : Construction: Closure of Santa Ana’s Main Street bridge will mean detours and delays during the coming phase of Santa Ana Freeway widening.

Beleaguered commuters are about to confront a new batch of closed freeway ramps and bridges around Main Street, creating a confusing new maze of detours and delays.

“It will be a mess,” Caltrans engineer Hank Alonso said Tuesday. “But as we refine the system, it will work better.”

The new closures, part of the massive, $1.9-billion widening of the Santa Ana Freeway from six to 12 lanes, result from plans to demolish and then rebuild the Main Street and Lincoln Avenue bridges across the freeway in downtown Santa Ana this summer.

The closures will nearly isolate the Santa Ana-Orange County government center from the Santa Ana Freeway, except for the on- and off-ramps at already congested 17th Street.

The bridge at Main, which handles an average of 35,027 vehicle trips per day, will be closed in June.

Caltrans has started detouring drivers by closing the on-ramp from Main Street to the northbound Santa Ana Freeway.

The northbound freeway detour requires people to drive to La Veta Avenue, enter the westbound Garden Grove Freeway, and then transfer to the northbound Santa Ana Freeway.

“We’ve already seen a congestion problem develop in the afternoon,” said Santa Ana Police Lt. Robert Helton. “We’re having a problem with people not being able to clear the intersections by the time traffic lights change. We have about 10 motor officers out there to assist with traffic flow.”

Helton said police soon will start ticketing people who enter intersections when it’s obvious that they will be stuck there when the signal changes.

Even schoolchildren face a new routine.

Hundreds of students who walk across the Lincoln Avenue bridge will be bused along alternate routes at Caltrans’ expense.

A major feature of the $37-million Main Street project involves construction--over the next two months--of a temporary off-ramp from the northbound Santa Ana Freeway onto MainPlace Drive, behind the shopping mall’s parking garages. This will provide access to Main Street by way of West Roe Drive, or by way of Buffalo Avenue and the Broadway bridge.

The temporary off-ramp, said MainPlace Manager Tanya Thomas, will be a boon to business.

“It’s definitely a prime opportunity for us to have prime exposure to the (Santa Ana) freeway,” Thomas said. “It will make access very, very quick.”

Three years ago, the mall’s developers and the city lobbied state officials unsuccessfully for a permanent freeway off-ramp into the MainPlace parking lot. As part of the Main Street project, the mall will initiate an 11 a.m.-to-2 p.m. shuttle service to and from the Civic Center. The fare will be 30 cents.

The shuttle service will operate for one year at a cost of about $50,000, Thomas said. “It’s going to reduce emissions, vehicular traffic, and it’s going to bring people to MainPlace for their errands and their lunches,” she said.

Civic Center workers were once provided with a similar service that failed after three months, Thomas acknowledged. She expects better results this time with a bigger advertising campaign and area workers’ discontent with traffic turmoil.

Adding to the mess will be the closure of the off-ramp from the southbound Santa Ana Freeway to Main Street for about a year, beginning in two or three months.

The Broadway exit from the southbound Santa Ana Freeway will remain open.

But the on-ramp from Main to the southbound Santa Ana Freeway will be closed in May or June, also for about a year.

Caltrans’ Alonso said the closures may be ill-timed considering that ramps at the “Orange Crush” (the interchange of the Santa Ana, Garden Grove and Orange freeways) and at Grand Avenue are so close together, but the highway agency has no choice.

But Alonso added that Caltrans plans to have at least one ramp open nearby, whenever one is shut down. That’s why the ramps at 17th Street remain open for now, he said.

Some residents who may be inconvenienced by the ramp closures are actually happy.

Mildred Miller, who has lived on Bush Street next to the northbound Santa Ana Freeway on- and off-ramps for 34 years, said closure of the ramps will mean that “it’s going to be a lot quieter around here.”

Freeway Follies The latest round in the Santa Ana Freeway widening project will result in another series of ramp closures and detours during the next two years. Demolition of the Main Street bridge will also force motorists to seek alternate routes. Southbound off-ramp to Main Street closes in June for a year. Detour: Exit at Broadway and take Santa Clara Avenue to Main Street. Santa Clara and Buffalo avenues become one-way streets in February. Southbound on-ramp at Buffalo Avenue will be closed for a year. Temporary northbound off-ramp to MainPlace Drive opens in two or three months. Main Street bridge closes in mid-1993 for two years. Southbound detour: Take West Roe Drive to Broadway to Santa Clara Avenue. Northbound detour: Take Buffalo Avenue to Broadway to West Roe Drive Source: Caltrans