Help on Way for Y Snarl : Area Will Become 24-Lane Interchange

The El Toro Y, the jammed confluence of the San Diego and Santa Ana freeways that often resembles a parking lot, is about to get a major face lift--six months ahead of schedule.

In October, construction crews will begin transforming the area, which handles an average of 457,000 vehicles each day, into the world’s widest interchange--24 lanes.

Some ramps will be one mile long. Astronauts orbiting the Earth might mistake the concrete tangle for a jumbo pile of spaghetti. With transportation spending shifting to toll roads and rail, the project will be one of Orange County’s last great monuments to the Freeway Age that spurred the county’s growth.

When the $247-million freeway widening and remodeling job is completed in July, 1996, the confluence and new car-pool lanes southward to San Juan Capistrano will provide a 14-year breather before traffic-handling capacity is outgrown again, sometime after 2010, traffic officials say.

Despite its notoriety, the Y isn’t the county’s most congested interchange. That distinction is held by the junction of the Garden Grove, Orange and Santa Ana freeways near Anaheim Stadium, which averages about 492,500 vehicles daily and is the fifth-busiest in the United States.

Still, congestion at the Y typically adds 10 minutes of delay to rush-hour commutes, transportation officials estimate.

“Daily commuters are anxious for this,” said Rob Cahoon, a human resources assistant at Mazda’s U.S. headquarters in Irvine, who drives the Y every day. Cahoon sometimes uses area streets as an alternate route from his home in Mission Viejo, but, to his frustration, has found they are little help. “It still takes about the same amount of time,” he said.

Pleased at the prospect of the improvement, Cahoon and other commuters nonetheless are worried about how long it will take to see results and about slowdowns from the actual construction work.

Indeed, the project will proceed slowly at first. But all existing freeway lanes will remain open, said transportation officials, who also believe construction delays can be minimized. Lane and ramp closures will occur at night, with electronic message signs warning of detours. Freeway service patrols will be around to remove any stalled or damaged vehicles.

Still, “there’s going to be a lot of pain during construction, but there will be lots of gain later,” said Orange County Transportation Authority Chairman Gary L. Hausdorfer, a San Juan Capistrano councilman who has pushed for the improvements on behalf of his constituents for several years.

As part of the massive undertaking, off-ramps will be added on Interstate 5 at Bake Parkway. There will be two car-pool lanes in each direction in the median, with direct-connect ramps so commuters do not need to leave the car-pool lanes when changing freeways.

Moreover, a new system of parallel access roads on each side of the freeway, separated from the main lanes, will collect and distribute traffic to various locations. At some places, these special ramps will be four lanes, resembling major streets flanking the freeway.

It’s all designed to reduce weaving between lanes and to force motorists to commit to one path or another long before reaching the confluence, which ranks among the nation’s 15 busiest freeway interchanges, according to Caltrans.

For example, a new ramp on the southbound San Diego Freeway far north of the Y will handle motorists headed for Bake Parkway and Lake Forest Drive, which are south of the Y. Thus those vehicles will no longer have to travel through the crowded Y itself.

In addition, car-pool lanes will be added from the Y south to Pacific Coast Highway in San Juan Capistrano.

That’s great news for Adrienne Domash, a city of Irvine employee who said her biggest frustration is getting on the freeway and not being able to easily move over into the car-pool lanes when driving with her colleagues or her husband, who works nearby and “hates the traffic.”

“People are so nasty,” Domash said. “They don’t let you get over.”

Domash, who lives in Mission Viejo, also said she welcomes the project, as long as construction doesn’t make traffic worse or hurt local businesses.

One possible problem for the project is that it was designed long before talk of the possible closure of the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station. As a result, it doesn’t take into account possible expanded uses of the sprawling base, such as its conversion to a commercial airport.

Caltrans officials are sanguine about that eventuality, saying it takes so long to plan and build an airport that it would be 2010 before any adjustments would be needed. Besides, said Caltrans construction chief Brent Felker, “there are opportunities to fix it again, if we have to.”

The doubled car-pool lanes on Interstate 5 will run the four miles from the Y south to Alicia Parkway, where they will reduce to a single lane.

Why run the double car-pool lanes all the way to Alicia?

“Congestion is actually worse at La Paz (Road) and Alicia than at the Y,” said Tom Bogard, project development manager at OCTA, which is overseeing the effort.

Caltrans’ Felker agreed, saying there is so much lane-changing there due to traffic getting on and off the freeway that it causes traffic to slow considerably.

Most of the project will be financed by Measure M, the half-cent sales tax for traffic improvements approved by Orange County voters in November, 1990. The city of Irvine is handling the Bake Parkway improvements, however, and the Marines are donating a small strip of the El Toro base for needed right of way.

Meanwhile, Mazda’s Cahoon and Irvine’s Domash said they believe the money to improve the Y will be well spent and will make their commute easier. Although Cahoon, in the spirit of the changing transportation landscape, added, “I would prefer light rail. . . . “

Widening the Y

Construction to alleviate the congestion at the El Toro Y interchange will begin in October. The $247-million project will enable car-poolers to transfer from one freeway to another without leaving the car-pool lane. Construction is expected to be completed in 1996.

* Southbound motorists exiting the Santa Ana Freeway or San Diego Freeway at Bake Parkway or Lake Forest Drive will get off at collector lanes before freeways converge.

* Collector lanes let northbound Interstate 5 traffic choose to stay put or switch freeways long before reaching the Y.

* Bake Parkway will have off- and on-ramps to and from an elevated interchange to relieve traffic at Lake Forest.

Southbound I-5 Current: 2010 A.M. 5,625--6,467 P.M. 8,550--11,160 Northbound I-5 Current: 2010 A.M. 8,850--8,853 P.M. 5,560--5,679 * Two car-pool lanes will be added in each direction from the Y south to Alicia Parkway including a direct-connect ramp.

* Twenty-four lanes at the widest part of the confluence.

Southbound I-5 Current: 2010 A.M. 4,450--4,667 P.M. 5,075--6,179 Northbound I-405 Current: 2010 A.M. 5,850--4,045 P.M. 4,350--3,376 Southbound I-405 Current: 2010 A.M. 4,175--4,153 P.M. 6,065--6,063 During construction, various lanes will be closed at night so crews can work. Entire project will open at same time, not in segments.

* Glossary Collector roads: Special roads that run parallel to the freeway on both sides, allowing motorists to avoid the freeway. They will be four lanes wide in places and resemble major streets. Direct-connect ramps: Special elevated ramps that allow car-poolers to switch freeways without leaving their lanes. Car-pool lanes: Lanes in which two or more occupants per vehicle are required. Sources: Orange County Transportation Authority, Caltrans; Researched by CAROLINE LEMKE and APRIL JACKSON / Los Angeles Times