Freeway Work: A New Tack

A section of the northbound Santa Ana Freeway between the El Toro Y and Sand Canyon Avenue was slated for a seven-hour make-over Monday night, part of a new approach to keeping the state’s roads in top shape.

It was the first time a complete shutdown of a freeway segment has been used in Orange County to allow maintenance crews to work simultaneously on repairs, said Caltrans spokeswoman Deborah Harris.

“There is a dip in the road that needed to be fixed, and we decided it was advantageous to get several things done at once,” she said.

While paving, striping and lighting crews were scheduled to work on major freeway repairs, northbound traffic was to be detoured onto nearby freeways and streets. Nearly 290,000 cars a day traverse the three-mile freeway stretch in both directions.

Harris said Caltrans will look for more opportunities to complete multiple repairs at one time, eliminating the need for recurring weekend closures. Monday night’s closure, for example, was to involve three work crews, which normally requires three separate closures, officials said. Caltrans set up message boards warning drivers ahead of time.

“It isn’t always possible to schedule all the crews at the same time,” Harris said. “But when it’s possible, we’ll try to do it.”

The 35 maintenance workers were to get underway at 10 p.m., with freeway reopening set for 5 a.m. today.

“This plan will be safe and efficient, but more importantly it will have an overall minimal effect on the motoring public,” said Joe Hecker, chief of operations and maintenance for Caltrans in Orange County.