Costa Mesa Ponies Up $7.7 Million for Freeway

In a move aimed at keeping a major congestion-relief project on schedule, the Costa Mesa City Council voted 4 to 1 Monday to make up a shortfall of nearly $8 million promised for construction on the overtaxed interchange of the San Diego and Costa Mesa freeways.

The approval to spend $7.7 million in developer fees came as Orange County Transportation Authority planners put pressure on the city to pledge its share of the money to untangle freeway ramps in the South Coast Metro area.

“It is a lot to ask of a city, but they needed to decide on their priorities,” OCTA spokesman Dave Simpson said. “We’re extremely pleased that they made this decision.”

Simpson said the commitment of the funds puts the project back on track. The $20 million effort will add a northbound offramp at Avenue of the Arts, a northbound onramp at Anton Avenue and an elevated offramp at Bristol Street that was designed in tandem with a $48-million carpool-to-carpool connector.

If Costa Mesa had pulled out of the joint project, the city would have been on the hook for the $500,000 to $800,000 cost of redesigning the construction plans. Now the project can go out to bid in May, with work beginning as soon as the end of the year, officials said.

The lone dissenting vote Monday night was that of Councilwoman Heather K. Somers, who expressed concern that the city was committing all its traffic fees for the next seven years to the project--thereby undercutting other city street projects.

But City Manager Allan L. Roeder said the city already has funding designated for other road work scheduled during the seven-year period.

City officials said congestion at the interchange already is at unacceptable levels, and several office complexes and shopping centers under construction in the area will increase traffic significantly in the coming years.

“It’s not about preventing future effects of these developments,” Mayor Gary Monahan said Tuesday. “We already have a phenomenal mess there.”

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The money will go toward construction of a bridge to better route cars from the southbound Costa Mesa Freeway to the northbound San Diego Freeway. Drivers now must cross several lanes of traffic, which can lead to severe rush-hour backups.

OCTA is committing another $3.8 million from the city’s share of Measure M traffic funding to improve the interchange, which is one of the nation’s busiest.

The city already has about $930,000 in fees collected from existing developments to offset the traffic they have generated. The council vote commits an additional $6.8 million from new businesses over the next seven years, said Peter Naghavi, the city’s transportation services manager.

In addition to contributing its $7.7-million share, the city also has lined up $8.6 million in federal and county grants for construction.

The overall effort to smooth traffic flow in the South Coast Metro area also includes new carpool lanes at the San Diego-Costa Mesa freeway interchange. The new lanes will link 120 miles of carpool lanes in the county.

Naghavi said all that construction should be completed by 2004 but that travelers should expect delays until then. “I admire the City Council for their visionary decision,” he said. “They may not look good in the next four years, but they will leave behind a legacy.”