THE LANE-SCAPE CHANGES DAILY ALONG THE FREEWAYS WE FREQUENT. FOR DRIVERS, THE SANTA ANA FREEWAY CONSTRUCTION PROJECT CAN BE DISORIENTING; FOR MERCHANTS, IT’S COSTLY. BUT THERE ARE WAYS TO SURVIVE THE DRIVE UNTIL THIS, TOO, PASSES. : A Shoulder to Cry On

There you are, humming along nicely on the Santa Ana Freeway northbound from Irvine, and suddenly there it is: a Tinkertoy combination of ramps, flyovers, high-occupancy vehicle lanes, connectors--all of them jutting out of the landscape in various stages of construction. And nearby, in the center of the freeway and littering the sides, huge piles of old concrete, immense mounds of earth, all of it being shoved around by heavy equipment. And signs, confusing and otherwise, everywhere. Worse, all of this activity holds out the promise of smooth, rapid, stress-free driving at almost any hour of the day, but right now you can’t use any of it. It seems as if every inch of the Santa Ana Freeway, from northern Tustin to the dreaded “Orange Crush”--the interchange of the Garden Grove, Orange and Santa Ana freeways--is under construction, and has been since time began.

Makes you a little crazy? You’re not alone.

For drivers who regularly navigate the section of freeway that planners refer to as “Orange County’s Main Street,” the experience can be a bit like the common and disorienting dream in which you’re walking down your street and suddenly become aware that everything has changed, that no sight is familiar and that, in your own house, someone has rearranged all the furniture.

Only this time it’s on a really grandiose scale. Entire connectors have disappeared and reappeared elsewhere. On- and off-ramps that you could use last week may have vanished just in time for your Monday morning commute. Old landmarks have been bulldozed, new and strange ones constructed.

If you live or work in Santa Ana, or pass through regularly, just getting in and out of town can feel like looking for the Northwest Passage.

Complicating matters is concern that Orange County’s bankruptcy may keep the whole confusing scenario in place indefinitely. But before you start gripping your head with both hands and yelling, here’s some comfort: Spokespersons for both the Orange County Transit Authority and Caltrans, the agencies overseeing the Santa Ana reconstruction project, say the county’s recent bankruptcy filing won’t affect the schedule of the project. The central segment of the task, which includes the Santa Ana stretch, should be completed on schedule in mid-1996.

The Santa Ana Freeway reconstruction is “the single largest public works project in Orange County history,” said Tom Bogard, OCTA’s manager of project development.

When its three phases--totaling 37 miles from San Juan Capistrano to the Los Angeles County line--are completed by mid-2000, the 240,000-vehicle-per-day capacity of the freeway will have doubled, and the peak hour speeds will have risen from between 15 and 20 m.p.h. to a wind-in-the-hair 55, Bogard said.

The entire project is budgeted at $1.9 billion, and the highly visible 14-mile central phase, from the El Toro “Y” to the Orange Crush, will cost $653 million, Bogard said.

But, like kids in the back seat on a cross-country trip, what many commuters want to know is simply, “Are we there yet?”

“In Orange County, people think of freeways as their personal streets,” Bogard said. “They know them often better than the streets around their houses. As the changes go on, there’s so much personal interest.”

And, to varying degrees, personal angst.

“It’s generally the case that things that decrease predictability and personal control add to stress,” said Ray Novaco, a professor of social ecology at UC Irvine and a specialist in the study of commuter stress. “The discomfort people might feel (driving on the freeway through Santa Ana) is sort of a low-grade aspect of the survival response. It gets aroused by new stimuli and can be felt as a potential threat to the individual. But . . . recognize that these bits of stimulation are safe and that they don’t threaten you.”

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They can, however, put a kink in one’s business, especially if that business is in what might be called the project’s ground zero, the neighborhood surrounding the intersection of Main and 17th streets.

As a result of freeway construction, the Main Street bridge that used to span the Santa Ana Freeway just south of the MainPlace/Santa Ana mall is closed, turning one of the county’s busiest through streets into a dead end. And heavily trafficked 17th Street, busy at most hours of the day, comes to a ferocious bottleneck at the freeway overpass during peak hours, when traffic is severely pinched by construction beneath and around the bridge.

Michael Farinacci lives only a few blocks from the restaurant he owns in the shadow of the 17th Street overpass, Ruby Tuesday’s Bar and Grill. He has few commuting worries, but others who do have been staying away from his business, he said.

The construction, he said, “has really wiped out my day business; that’s when (the traffic is) the worst. And it’s somewhat affected at night. Basically, people avoid the area because it’s such a hassle. When it’s congested, people want to get out of it as soon as possible. The regulars eventually avoid the area entirely, and those that are just passing through don’t stop.

“You learn to circumvent the traffic after a while, but it’s still not uncommon for a five-minute trip to turn into 15 or 20 minutes. And that’s what kills my lunch hour,” he said.

Farinacci estimated that it would take “a good year” for his business and others in the area to rebound after the Santa Ana phase of construction is complete and 17th and Main streets can once again fully accommodate traffic.

It likely won’t take long for drivers to adapt to their new surroundings once the job is done, however. The completed project promises a degree of traffic relief tantamount to coronary bypass surgery. The old freeway through Santa Ana had six lanes and could handle 13,000 vehicles per hour during peak drive time. Upon completion of the project, 26,000 vehicles per hour will whiz along 12 lanes, said OCTA’s Bogard. (For a taste of this, try the southbound Santa Ana Freeway through Irvine, where the freeway has been widened.)

Traffic will also be eased by the introduction of high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes, among the most spectacular-looking aspects of the project. They are the structures that soar above the Santa Ana Freeway and parts of the Costa Mesa Freeway near the Santa Ana Freeway interchange. Designed to lift buses, vans, car pools and other multiperson vehicles out of the rest of the traffic and speed them on their way, today the HOV lanes look like so much wood shoring in many places. The wooden latticework that makes up the framework of the flyovers can look almost Byzantine.

And those vexing tight turns through the looping connectors at the Santa Ana Freeway/Costa Mesa Freeway interchange? They’ll be gone, said Bogard, replaced by great parabolic flyovers.

“Adding a little more spaghetti to this thing” is the way Bogard puts it.

Meanwhile, the earthmovers crash on, and drivers try to keep their eyes on the prize.

“People recognize that the end result will improve the traffic mobility in the area and that they are actually going to benefit,” said Marina Duran-Rojas, spokeswoman for Caltrans.

“Initially there was a lot of surprise that this was actually going to happen. People really didn’t understand the impact of the project until we began the actual construction work that affected their lives. Then they were no longer able to get around the area like they used to. It was making their lives more difficult. Some people were angry. Their perception of something familiar had changed.”

How to beat the snarl? Elaine Beno, a spokesperson for OCTA, offered a few tips: Plan your trips and commutes ahead, and pay attention to construction updates on radio, TV and in newspapers. When possible, use alternate means of transportation, such as buses, trains or carpools. If your employer allows, make your commute at non-peak hours or stagger your work schedule.

Also, both OCTA and Caltrans offer help over the phone. OCTA’s commuter assistance and route planning line, thorough which you can receive help in mapping out a more convenient route to your destination, is (714) 636-RIDE (toll-free from South County, (800) 636-RIDE). Caltrans’ transportation help line, which provides updated information on construction and closures, is (714) 724-2077.

“Psychologically, people are pretty much resigned now, in the midst of it,” said Duran-Rojas. “And they’re already beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel.”

Toby Beaver has already seen it, albeit through a haze of surface street traffic. The manager of the Sinclair Paint store on 17th Street near the freeway, Beaver, who commutes from Anaheim, said that his freeway drive on the Santa Ana Freeway actually takes less time than it used to.

“They kept moving the 17th Street ramp around for a while, but it’s back in the same place now. Once I get on the freeway, it’s fine. It’s getting to the entrance on 17th that’s the problem,” he said. “It really takes a while to get there, especially if the traffic on the street is clogged up.”

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The bottlenecks continue, but throughout all construction the Santa Ana Freeway has never been closed. Manhandled, yes. Camouflaged, seemingly. But always open.

“It’s continually changing,” said Caltrans’ Duran-Rojas. “Early on there were a lot of closures of ramps, and people had to deal with that, but now we have about a year and a half to go, and we are seeing ramps opening up. And we rescheduled some closures of ramps so they (wouldn’t) impact during the holidays. And we’ve flip-flopped on closures--say, Grand Avenue at one point, Main Street at another point. There’s disruption, but we’ve tried to share the disruption with everybody.”

Disruption? asked Will Recker. What disruption?

Recker is the director of the UCI Institute of Transportation Studies, and his analysis of the impact of the project comes down to: It could have been a lot worse.

“A number of years ago,” he said, “when they first started planning the reconstruction, Caltrans was very interested and edgy about such a massive undertaking. It was going to be like doing surgery on a patient while the patient is still awake. Doom and gloom was predicted. It was thought that everything would come to a standstill.

“And you know what? It never materialized. I’m not always a Caltrans booster, but they did something right here. As an engineer, I’m amazed how it’s gone so well.

“Yes, there’s a lot of anxiousness in that people are wanting it to be done so they can use it. But many of us, for the past 20 years, thought that we wouldn’t be able to build our way out of this one. But the way things look, maybe we can.”