12 Plans to Go on the Table to Aid O.C.-Riverside County Commute

Transportation officials today will unveil a dozen suggestions to reduce congestion on the 91 Freeway between Orange and Riverside counties, one of the heaviest traveled corridors in the state.

Ideas include building a high-speed rail line and constructing a new freeway corridor up to six lanes wide -- possibly including a tunnel -- through the Santa Ana Mountains.

Widening the Riverside Freeway by two to four lanes and expanding bus and Metrolink commuter rail service are other options to be formally presented today to a joint committee of the Orange and Riverside counties’ transportation authorities.

The presentation is part of an 18-month, $3.3-million study to develop a strategy to alleviate increasing traffic congestion along the Riverside Freeway, the only major artery between both counties.

The freeway’s capacity hit its maximum several years ago, with as many as 300,000 vehicles a day traveling the route, often in bumper-to-bumper traffic. By 2030, more than 400,000 are predicted to be traveling on it.

Congestion will only increase unless new strategies are adopted -- or, more likely, a combination of ideas, said John Standiford, a spokesman for the Riverside County Transportation Commission. Some form of expanded mass transit is key, he said.

“There [have] to be improvements on the 91 [Freeway]. We also need to increase train and/or bus service, and we have to look at a new corridor too,” Standiford said. “Any one of those things won’t provide us with the benefit for future needs.”

Metrolink trains between the two counties are already popular, but officials need to consider how to expand parking at stations and handle more commuter trains on tracks shared with freight trains, he said.

All of the ideas are still conceptual at this point, officials said.

The committee hopes to narrow down the list of ideas by summer and agree on a final plan by December, said Ted Nguyen, an Orange County Transportation Authority spokesman.

Some of the ideas have already caused debate, particularly the idea of a tunnel through the Santa Ana Mountains, which has been criticized by environmentalists.

But, officials emphasize, that’s why the committee will hold five town hall meetings to discuss the proposals.

“To find a viable transportation solution, we need to have a healthy dialogue with neighbors in both counties,” Nguyen said.

Last month, the committee settled on five potential roads for expansion or on creating new ones.

They include the Riverside Freeway area and its parallel railroad right-of-way, and expanding Ortega Highway.

Two corridors that may include a tunnel would connect the Laguna Freeway and the Foothill Toll Road interchange in Orange County with Cajalco Road or Lake Elsinore off Interstate 15 in Riverside County.

The idea of a high-speed train was added as a consideration, Standiford said, in the wake of a study to build such a line connecting Anaheim to Las Vegas.