Section of I-5 to Be Widened

A tough, two-mile stretch of the Santa Ana Freeway in Orange County will be widened from six to 10 lanes, potentially pushing the notorious rush-hour bottleneck north into Los Angeles County.

The Orange County Transportation Authority agreed Monday to spend $250 million on the job, which would reach north from the Riverside Freeway to the Los Angeles County line.

The roadwork is part of a grander $1.25-billion widening plan that includes the two-mile link in Orange County and 13 miles of freeway stretching from the county line to the Long Beach Freeway in Los Angeles County.

But as it stands, only Orange County transportation officials have firmly agreed to the construction work. Roadwork in Orange County is expected to begin by 2004 and take up to two years to complete.

“The goal is to move this bottleneck as far north as possible, well beyond the county line,” said Cindy Quon, a transportation authority project development manager.

The bottleneck has been created by widening projects and roadwork farther south in Orange County, said an official with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority in Los Angeles. In recent years, the Santa Ana Freeway has been widened from Dana Point north to its junction with the Riverside Freeway.

“The problem is, this opening up has funneled much more traffic to Los Angeles County, and it’s caused chronic congestion problems,” said Marta Maestas, an MTA project manager.

More than 200,000 motorists drive the dreaded stretch of the Santa Ana Freeway each day, which narrows from 12 to six lanes north of the Riverside Freeway in Orange County.

By agreeing to the widening Monday, transportation authority officials scrapped an earlier temporary fix that would have added only one carpool lane in each direction on Orange County’s two miles of the targeted freeway.

That plan was abandoned when the transportation authority received an $125-million grant from the governor’s Traffic Congestion Relief Program. An equal amount will come from Measure M transportation tax funds.

Los Angeles County is responsible for a much larger chunk of the work--widening about 13 miles of the freeway from the county border to the Long Beach Freeway.

Despite the optimism of the looming improvements, transportation authority officials acknowledged that the project still faces numerous hurdles that could inflate costs. Among those problems are elevated ground water, and right of way conflicts with nearby rail routes, businesses and even residences.

Such anticipated conflicts are partly responsible for the decision to widen the freeway from six to 10 lanes, instead of pushing for 12 lanes. Transportation authority board member and Buena Park City Councilman Arthur C. Brown said he and officials from five Los Angeles cities fought plans to widen the road to 12 lanes.

“Basically, they were threatening to wipe out our major economic benefits by taking land from businesses along the freeway,” Brown said. “It would have been devastating.”

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Freeway Work

Improvements to Interstate 5 are planned from north Orange County to downtown Los Angeles. The Orange County portion will be paid for with Measure M funds.