Official Gridlock Doomed a Street-Smart El Toro Y

It was the sort of traffic jam that nightmares are made of--a harrowing six-hour SigAlert that crippled half the El Toro Y and slowed 50,000 evening commuters to a steering wheel-pounding, brake-pumping crawl.

It was also the sort of traffic jam that might have vanished rapidly with the help of the computerized Intelligent Transportation System, which the federal government had paid to install there six years ago. The system--a mix of video cameras, electronic sensors and remote-controlled signals to help divert traffic around congestion--would have made Irvine streets and the infamous Y the “smartest” roads in California.

That experimental system was nowhere to be found in January, when a hazardous-waste spill brought rush-hour traffic on the San Diego Freeway to a halt. That’s because, after more than five years of planning, $3 million in spending and countless delays, Caltrans, Irvine and the Federal Highway Administration abandoned the project entirely. The reason, according to a report now circulating, is that this smart-road system suffered a lobotomy at the hands of its creators.

The report, prepared as a postscript to the abandoned project, concluded that the effort was buffeted by problems: key project participants bailed out in midstream because of organizational friction, critical cameras and other devices were never installed because workers lacked the tools or instruction manuals, and many supervisors and workers sought out new employment. A major contractor complained of losing half a million dollars. And officials devoted many meetings to debating such issues as the definition of the word “integrated.”

“The project was a failure,” said Michael McNally, a transportation professor at UC Irvine and one of the report’s authors. “Nothing got implemented and nothing got set up.”

In addition to Caltrans and the city of Irvine, academic researchers, the NET Corp. and Faradyne Systems Inc. were involved. Together, their work was to be a first-of-a-kind test case in the state, a project that could be replicated in other traffic-swamped areas in California.

Today, as the greater Orange County and Los Angeles area again is ranked as the most congested in the nation, few participants will discuss the project, and those who do disavow any significant involvement. The project has left such a bad taste in the mouths of Caltrans officials that they have refused to participate in future pilot projects, according to the report. As one Caltrans employee told authors of the report: “The large risk of bad publicity associated with a failed project outweighs potential benefits.”

However, some longtime Caltrans critics complain that the star-crossed project is typical of small-budget items that are handled by the agency.

“It’s not surprising it went nowhere,” said Wayne King, director of Roads Work Best, a group that monitors transportation spending in Orange County and opposes rail development.

“Three-million dollars in the world of Caltrans is really not that much,” King said. “A project that small, it just lays over on the corner of a desk somewhere and nobody pays any attention to it. And if the money’s already spent, what are they going to do? They just give an excuse and move on.”

The proposed project would have used video cameras, roadway sensors, computer monitors, remote-control message signs and street signals to route traffic around accidents at the El Toro Y--the point where the San Diego and Santa Ana freeways merge--by channeling traffic onto local roadways and back onto the freeway downstream of the accident. Currently, Caltrans freeway controllers and municipal street controllers lack the ability to coordinate or monitor each other’s traffic data.

In the case of the January SigAlert, the lack of coordination and of traffic controls resulted in a tidal wave of traffic rolling off the San Diego Freeway onto local roads in Irvine. The result: gridlock.

If the network were operating, electronic billboards would notify motorists of a detour route in Irvine, and signals at local intersections would be altered to funnel traffic through town and back to the freeway. Additional billboards, operating by remote, would direct traffic through the city. The timing of freeway ramp meters would be altered as well.

Irvine Still Shooting for a Similar System

It was a concept that excited many engineers.

“It was looked upon as being a pretty decent step forward,” recalled Kenneth Louie, the city traffic engineer in Irvine.

Louie said the project’s failure was a disappointment, but that Irvine hasn’t given up hope of one day building a system like the one planned.

In fact, municipal crews have cobbled together their own rerouting system in the meantime, a system that includes five electronic message billboards along Alton Parkway--a major detour route in southern Orange County. The signs cannot be triggered remotely; road crews must drive out and turn them on in an emergency. All but two of the signs remained dark during January’s SigAlert.

“We were never able to activate all the electronic signs,” Louie said. “The crews got stuck in traffic.”