Commuters to Be Relieved, but for Now, Residents Suffer

Residents along Eastside Avenue in north Santa Ana expected traffic noise when they moved into their homes on the edge of the Santa Ana Freeway. But the musky, mildew-like smell that hangs over the neighborhood is giving them a case of roadside rage.

The stench--and winter street flooding--comes from an open storm drain built two years ago as part of the mammoth freeway widening project, and residents wonder how much longer they will have to endure the putrid smell.

“The odor is terrible,” said resident Socorro Donan, 36, a teacher’s aide at Hoover Elementary School. “Even with the windows and doors closed when we’re eating, you can smell it. It gives me a headache.”

The $1.1-billion widening of the Santa Ana Freeway through Buena Park, Anaheim and Santa Ana promises to ease traffic flow for hundreds of thousands of commuters when it is completed in December 2000. But the work is causing grief for people who live in the freeway’s shadow.

In Anaheim, a few miles north of Donan’s neighborhood, residents complain that the construction of new lanes and connector roads is covering their homes, cars and lawns with a heavy blanket of dust.

On a recent afternoon on Illinois Street in Anaheim, Ino Gonzalez stood in his frontyard watching his brother wash his car.

“By tomorrow, it will be dirty,” he said with a sigh. Other residents have dubbed their neighborhood “the dust bowl” and say the constant vibration of jackhammers and bulldozers is driving them crazy.

Caltrans officials said they are doing all they can to minimize the problems experienced by nearby residents but acknowledge that the most expensive road project in Orange County history is causing major headaches.

“We’re doing our best to minimize the inconvenience to residents, businesses and commuters,” said Gail Smith, Caltrans public information officer, noting that the agency has set up a hotline for residents to file complaints.

In north Santa Ana, the problems stem from a storm culvert that was built two years ago to accommodate the freeway construction. In periods of heavy rains, the drain overflows onto the street.

Residents Victor and Doralina Madrid said backup from the drain caused flooding in his California Craftsman-style home. “It was an inconvenience,” said Doralina Madrid, 35, a local software company customer representative.

To guard against the flooding, the couple built a brick and dirt structure on the sidewalk in front of two basement windows.

Victor Madrid said he occasionally would pick up neighborhood children from school in his 4x4 truck so they could stay dry. Other neighbors stock empty sandbags in their garages to prevent yards and patios from flooding.

“I would put on my galoshes, tell the kids to hop up on the step,” he said. “I was like a ferryman. I could have charged them 50 cents a ride.”

When it’s not raining, the culvert becomes a steady, smelly stream of algae, decomposing leaves and mucky water.

“It was a major-league inconvenience,” Santa Ana Councilman Robert L. Richardson said. “Progress was slow. With the pile drivers, the dust and the detours, it was hard to focus on what the end result would be.”

The city hopes to solve the problem by building a new underground storm drain in the area--to the delight of residents. Officials estimate that the project will be completed in summer 1999.

“Something should have been done about this a long time ago,” said Bob Dethlefsen, 70, a retired finance manager who lives on Eastside Avenue.

A solution is more elusive to the dust-weary residents of central Anaheim.

Caltrans officials said there is little they can do to reduce dust generated from construction. Workers do sweep and water down construction areas from time to time. But too much water can create mud problems. Officials are offering discount carwash coupons to residents and businesses in the area.

But the offer doesn’t satisfy some residents. Vibrations from the construction, they contend, have caused cracks in patios and ceilings.

Doris Bradley, who has lived on Illinois Street since 1955, said the most aggravating thing to her is the construction trucks that speed down her street, kicking up dust clouds.

Bradley said vibrations from construction caused a collector’s plate--one of a set of six--to fall from a shelf and break.

“I can cope with it. It will get better, I hope,” Bradley said.