Irvine : Caltrans Presents Ideas for Widening Freeway

The California Department of Transportation on Monday presented a range of alternatives for widening the Santa Ana Freeway, Orange County’s most critical freeway route and long the source of the county’s worst traffic congestion.

The environmental impact statement outlined at a public hearing Monday night explores options ranging from leaving the freeway as it is to either widening it a lane in each direction or constructing new general travel lanes and car-pool lanes.

Costs for the alternatives range from $27 million to $115 million, depending in part on how many homes would be displaced in widening the freeway. Earlier studies showed that about 102 homes in Tustin and the unincorporated area would have to be purchased to widen the freeway from the Costa Mesa Freeway south to the San Diego Freeway.

Officials from the City of Irvine and the Irvine Co. are urging Caltrans, as part of the environmental review process, to study the problems of merging traffic at the confluence of the Santa Ana and San Diego freeways.

“For some time now . . . we have requested Caltrans to address in the I-5 widening document the issue of what happens when you widen both the I-405 and I-5 but don’t do anything to the point where they merge,” said Hugh Fitzpatrick of the Irvine Co.

“When you have two major freeways merging like that and an interchange like Lake Forest closely located, you have weaving problems. There’s a safety problem and an operational problem there,” he said.

Fitzpatrick said the Irvine Co. has offered to defer some of the money due the company for right-of-way along the freeway to help pay for the studies. The company is also offering to pay for a new Bake Parkway interchange near the confluence that could be designed to improve merging traffic from the two freeways, he said.