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Nearly Two Years Late, Carpool Flyover Opens

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Times Staff Writer

A carpool bridge that links the San Diego and Costa Mesa freeways is finally open to traffic -- 20 months behind schedule and nearly $3.5 million over budget.

Work was halted on the 60-foot-high connector more than two years ago when workers discovered cracks in the concrete span, raising concerns that portions of the half-mile-long bridge might have to be razed.

It is still unclear who will have to pay for repairing the connectors, which take carpool-lane drivers from one freeway to the other.

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Local transportation officials agreed to pay for the repairs, and to seek reimbursement once it is established who is responsible for the detects.

“As I understand it, there’s little problems with everybody -- the design specifications, the company that did the design, and the contractor. So you can’t point a finger at any one person,” said Supervisor Bill Campbell, newly elected chairman of the board of directors for the Orange County Transportation Authority.

The northbound flyover from the San Diego Freeway to the Costa Mesa Freeway opened Dec. 30. The southbound connector is scheduled to open Jan. 31.

The twin flyovers were supposed to open in April 2003 but work on the project had been halted the previous summer when inspectors discovered that concrete had cracked and sheared away along interior girders supporting two of the connector’s three sections.

Engineers initially feared that large portions of the bridge would have to be ripped out and rebuilt at a cost of more than $8 million, or three-quarters of the project’s total cost.

More detailed damage assessments later indicated that repairs would cost $2.5 million.

During the repairs, however, defects found inside the girders prompted local transportation leaders last summer to approve an additional $700,000 to $1 million in repairs to complete the unopened span.

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Engineers in 2003 said several factors caused the damage, including irregularly spaced steel reinforcing bars, thin concrete and too much tension in supporting cables through concrete girders.

After 15 months of repair work that included adding steel reinforcements and layers of high-strength concrete to ensure the structure could handle heavy traffic loads for at least 75 years, the northbound lane opened last month.

The two-lane carpool bridge, linking the northbound 405 to the northbound 55 and the southbound 55 to the southbound 405, is part of a $125-million project to improve that interchange, one of the nation’s 10 busiest. Drivers make about 506,000 trips a day through the interchange.

The connector was paid for by OCTA through Measure M, the local sales tax used for transportation projects. Caltrans is overseeing the job, as well as construction of several other area connectors and offramps, including ones at Bristol Street and Anton Boulevard in Costa Mesa.

Caltrans in 2002 said the bridge designer, CH2M Hill, and builder C.C. Myers Inc. were responsible for the “apparent” design and construction defects. The same parties were required to complete the repair work on the defective portions of the bridge.

OCTA staff has been directed by its board of directors to seek reimbursement for the repairs from the companies that are ultimately found responsible for the defects.

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“We’re going to make every effort to see that taxpayer funds are protected by having all parties involved held responsible for project repair,” said Ted Nguyen, spokesman for the agency.

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