4-Year Freeway Project Set to Start in January

A four-year, $180-million project that will add carpool lanes, upgrade overpasses and underpasses, and improve traffic flow on the Riverside Freeway is set to begin in January, officials said this week.

Improvements are planned for a 13-mile stretch of the route west of the Orange Freeway through Anaheim, Placentia, Fullerton, Buena Park and La Palma to the Los Angeles County line.

“It will be a major construction undertaking,” Barry Rabbitt, Caltrans office chief for construction, told Anaheim City Council members.

Rabbitt said steps will be taken to minimize inconvenience to motorists, such as posting detour routes and not closing the freeway during peak commuter hours. Nearby residents and merchants will be advised and updated, he said.

A partnership between the Orange County Transportation Authority and Caltrans, the project is being paid for primarily with funds from Measure M, the half-cent sales tax approved by voters in 1990 for transportation improvements in Orange County.

The project is to include carpool lanes in each direction and carpool lane connectors between the eastbound Riverside and the northbound Orange freeways; and between the southbound Orange and westbound Riverside freeways.

Major upgrades are planned at the Harbor Boulevard and Lemon Street freeway interchanges.

“The real benefit to the city of Anaheim is in the interchange improvements,” Mayor Tom Daly said.

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Smoother Drive

$180- million project to add carpool lanes and other upgrades.