Major Project to Widen Santa Ana Freeway to Start

One of the largest highway improvement projects in Orange County history, the widening of the Santa Ana Freeway from Orange to Buena Park, was officially kicked off Wednesday in ceremony if not in fact: Rain delayed the start of construction until Monday.

Nearly 100 dignitaries, business people and transportation officials gathered under a canopy at the Fullerton Park and Ride lot to celebrate the start of the $1.1-billion widening of the freeway from six lanes to 10, a project that is expected to take four years.

“We are really excited,” said Pam Gorniak, a spokeswoman for Caltrans, which is directing the project with the Orange County Transportation Authority. “This is a very good day for transportation in Orange County.”

The project, paid for largely by Measure M funds, follows the widening of the southern half of the Santa Ana Freeway from the El Toro Y to Dana Point. That project cost $166 million and took two years. An earlier project, costing about $579 million, widened the freeway from the El Toro Y through Santa Ana.

The rain that drove celebrants under a canopy Wednesday also delayed the start of construction until Monday, when crews will begin working at the project’s northern end near Beach Boulevard. Simultaneously, workers will begin rebuilding a bridge over the Santa Ana River at the southern end of the project near the Garden Grove Freeway.

Commuters will find two Santa Ana Freeway onramps closed beginning Monday: the southbound Magnolia Avenue onramp, expected to be off-limits for the next nine months, and the northbound Orangethorpe Avenue onramp, expected to reopen sometime in April.

Those will be the first of several temporary ramp closures scheduled over the next four years as workers widen the 9 1/2-mile stretch, reconfigure its interchange with the Riverside Freeway by adding carpool lanes and freeway connectors and add several new offramps near Disneyland.

Officials say they intend to keep all freeway lanes open during construction.

“Because of the tourism, it’s very important to keep the flow of traffic moving in those areas,” said Ileana Lopez, a spokeswoman for the OCTA. “The Santa Ana Freeway is a major trade thoroughfare between Los Angeles, Orange and Riverside counties. This is a highway system that many trucks use to get from one point to another.”

But the freeway’s widening is expected to benefit regular commuters as well, she said. Ultimately, according to Lopez, the improvements will allow the freeway, now carrying its maximum capacity of 175,000 cars a day, to accommodate about 235,000 cars. And up to 15 minutes is likely to be shaved off commutes that now take at least twice that long.

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Highway Highlights

The I-5 North Improvement Project is scheduled to get underway Monday, with construction beginning at either end of the 9 1/2 mile stretch. The overall work will include widening the freeway from six to 10 lanes, changing the configuration of the interchange of the Santa Ana and Riverside freeways, and adding new carpool lanes. Here’s what starts Monday, and where:

1. Construction from the Garden Grove Freeway to Chapman Avenue will include widening the Santa Ana River bridge and rebuilding connectors at the Santa Ana/Garden Grove/Orange freeways interchange (the “Orange Crush”).

2. Santa Ana/Riverside freeways interchange, including rebuilding Magnolia Avenue and Orangethorpe Avenue over-crossings as well as widening of the Beach Boulevard over-crossing.

Source: Caltrans