NEWPORT BEACH

Worried residents have seven months to convince Orange County that a footbridge is needed by the new Newport Coast Elementary School to ensure safe passage for children.

PTA members are concerned over heavy traffic surrounding the site where the elementary school is being built. The school will sit on the corner of Newport Coast Drive, a six-lane road with a speed limit of 60 mph, and Park Ridge Road, a steep incline that does not yet have a speed limit.

The school is scheduled to open this fall with 350 students, most of whom live within a two-mile radius, said Dana Schonwit, the executive vice president on the PTA board. Parents are not alone in this fight, said Newport-Mesa board President Dana Black. The board and the district have been discussing parents’ potential problems with dropping off and picking up students for quite some time, she said.

“We’re in the process of working with parents,” Black said. “It is a big concern for each and every one of us.”