Freeway Relief on Way : Flyover Should Ease Frustrations at Interchange

By LESLIE BERKMAN

May 5, 1995 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

TUSTIN —

When customers seek directions to Orange Coast Title in Santa Ana, executive secretary Lori Romano guides them on a circuitous route to avoid the intersection of the Santa Ana and Costa Mesa freeways, which she calls “practically a death trap.”

For years, this interchange has been notorious among commuters and business operators alike for continual traffic jams and sporadic ramp and road closures, because of--and despite--a project to widen and improve it.

But state traffic engineers promise that the teeth-gritting inconvenience will soon come to an end for those 438,000 motorists who daily use the Santa Ana/Costa Mesa Freeway interchange, considered the ninth busiest in the nation.

A leap forward, the California Department of Transportation said, will occur Saturday with the opening of a high-speed flyover that will connect the southbound Costa Mesa Freeway with the southbound Santa Ana Freeway and replace the tight, white-knuckle turns of the old cloverleaf connection.

Late this week, contractors were putting guardrails, curbing and striping on the two-lane, reinforced concrete bridge that each day will carry 30,000 cars high above the freeway intersection at 55 m.p.h. By comparison, the twisting, single-lane cloverleaf could be maneuvered safely only at speeds up to 20 m.p.h.

What’s more, motorists using the new flyover will find that an extra traffic lane has been added for their convenience when they merge onto the southbound Santa Ana.

Also on Saturday, a reconfigured exchange will open, linking the northbound Costa Mesa Freeway to the southbound Santa Ana. And on the southbound Santa Ana, a two-lane off-ramp will open onto Newport Avenue.

“All of those things combined will help to alleviate congestion at the interchange, especially on the Costa Mesa Freeway. It will allow the (Costa Mesa Freeway) to flow a lot smoother and remove some of the backup traffic that has caused congestion,” Caltrans spokesman Albert Miranda said.

Miranda estimated that the improvements will “save traffic at least 10 minutes going through the interchange” during heavy commuting hours.

And there is more relief in store this summer as the $161.5-million interchange improvement project, in its seventh year of construction, moves toward completion.

In June, Miranda said, there will be openings of two more freeway interchange connections--from the northbound Santa Ana Freeway to the northbound Costa Mesa Freeway and from the southbound Santa Ana to the southbound Costa Mesa.

And in August, he said, the biggest boon yet to motorists on the Costa Mesa Freeway is expected to open--another flyover that will be the first in the county directly connecting car-pool lanes between two freeways.

Motorists in the northbound car-pool lane of the Santa Ana Freeway will be able to connect with the car-pool lane headed north on the Costa Mesa Freeway, and motorists car-pooling south on the Santa Ana Freeway will be able to connect with the car-pool lane southbound on the Costa Mesa.

This car-poolers-only connection, Miranda said, will vastly improve the flow of traffic in other lanes of the Costa Mesa Freeway. “Now people in the car-pool lane have to merge across the freeway to get off,” he noted. The flyover, he said, will connect from the center median of the Costa Mesa Freeway to the center median of the Santa Ana Freeway.

Don Juge, the Caltrans engineer in charge of the interchange project, said the work has been accomplished in three distinct stages. First, he said, the Costa Mesa Freeway was widened south of the Santa Ana Freeway, a task that was accomplished from 1988 to 1990.

Then from 1990 to 1993 came the widening of the Santa Ana and Costa Mesa freeways north of the interchange and reconstruction of the First Street and Fourth Street bridges over the two freeways north of the interchange.

The last stage, the rebuilding of the interchange connectors, has been underway since 1992. In all, Juge said, there are six new connectors, including a flyover linking the northbound Costa Mesa Freeway with the northbound Santa Ana Freeway, which was completed in February.

Throughout the project, Juge said, Caltrans has tried to minimize traffic disruption. Nonetheless, he said, it has been necessary to close some freeway on-ramps and off-ramps for periods of a month to six weeks.

Although the Newport Avenue off-ramp on the Santa Ana Freeway will reopen Saturday, he said, the Fourth Street off-ramp on the northbound Costa Mesa Freeway will close for a month beginning May 15 so that it can be rebuilt to accommodate widening of the freeway.

Charles Kaczorowski, owner of Tustin Paint Mart, said his family business has not recovered from the closing of First Street almost two years ago and he worries that it could be dealt another blow when the Fourth Street exit ramp closes. “I have to virtually draw a map to get people here,” he said. “People don’t want to drive around the country looking for a paint store.”

The freeway intersection “was a zoo before, and during construction it got even worse,” said Mike Doyle, a Tustin city councilman and owner of the Revere House Restaurant in the same city. His restaurant suffered a 40% drop in business when First Street was closed from December, 1991, to June, 1993, and it has not rebounded. When that happened, he said, “there was no way to get here from anyplace.”

However, Doyle said he hopes that completion of the interchange upgrades will not only boost his business but alleviate traffic congestion on Tustin surface streets that motorists, in an attempt to avoid the Costa Mesa Freeway, have been using to reach the Santa Ana Freeway.

“I think it will help everybody’s business in Tustin and Santa Ana,” Doyle said. “I’m very pleased. I just wish it could all happen at once.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Broadened Horizons A new flyover connector and ramp improvements at the Santa Ana and Costa Mesa freeway interchange will open Saturday. This phase of the $161.5- million interchange project replaces an outdated cloverleaf design, and completion is expected by late 1996. A look at upcoming openings: *

Flyover: Two elevated lanes connect southbound Costa Mesa Freeway to southbound Santa Ana Freeway with an exit to Newport Avenue. *

Ground level: Two lanes connect northbound Costa Mesa Freeway to southbound Santa Ana Freeway. Mixed flow: One traffic lane added on southbound Santa Ana Freeway between Costa Mesa Freeway interchange and Red Hill Avenue. *

Off-ramp: Two lanes on southbound Santa Ana Freeway exit at Newport Avenue.

May 12 Openings A. Southbound Santa Ana Freeway off-ramp at Bristol Street / La Veta Avenue. B. Southbound Orange Freeway on-ramp to westbound Garden Grove Freeway at Chapman Avenue. C. Southbound Orange Freeway off-ramp at Bristol Street. Source: Caltrans; Researched by CAROLINE LEMKE / Los Angeles Times

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Later Openings

June, 1995

* Northbound Santa Ana Freeway to northbound Costa Mesa Freeway connector

* Southbound Santa Ana Freeway to southbound Costa Mesa Freeway connector

* Northbound Costa Mesa Freeway 4th Street off-ramp

* Main Street Bridge overpass

* Northbound Santa Ana Freeway Main Street off-ramp

* Southbound Santa Ana Freeway on-ramp at Grand Avenue

July, 1995

* Northbound Santa Ana Freeway to southbound Costa Mesa Freeway connector

August, 1995