New school faces traffic concerns

Danette Goulet

NEWPORT COAST -- Worried residents have seven short months to convince

Orange County that a footbridge is needed by the new Newport Coast

Elementary School to ensure safe passage for children.

With the formation of a PTA, came the consolidation of fears regarding

the heavy traffic surrounding the site where the elementary school is

being built.

The school will sit on the corner of Newport Coast Drive, a six-lane road

with a speed limit of 60 mph and Park Ridge Road a steep incline that

does not yet have a speed limit.

“Parents are scared to death that some little first-grader is going to

get mowed down,” said Denise Molnar, PTA president.

The school is scheduled to open this fall with 350 students, most of whom

live within a two-mile radius, said Dana Schonwit, the executive vice

president on the PTA board.

Although parents have many traffic concerns, such as the lack of parking

and the need for crossing guards, blinking lights and reduced speed limit

signs, the danger of Newport Coast Drive is by far the most worrisome.

“You can look at it as a six-lane road or negotiating as many as 18

cars,” said Georgia Ingram, a concerned parent who lives to the north of

the school site. “Even as an adult you have to run to make it across.”

Like Ingram’s child, most of the students are coming from the north, on

the other side of the busy thoroughfare, Schonwit said.

“It’s not just the speed limit, it’s also the congestion, it’s a major

artery,” Schonwit said. “As a result we as a PTA and a community would

like to see two pedestrian bridges built.”

One PTA member, Diana Snider-Henson, photographed several bridges similar

to what they would like to see at Newport Coast and got rough estimates

from several architects.

She found it would likely cost between $1 and $4 million per bridge.

Meanwhile Orange County traffic engineer, James Swatzel has begun a

traffic study in the area.

“He has put together some preliminary recommendations,” said Ignachio

Ochoa, a county traffic engineer and Swatzel’s supervisor. “This is the

way that the county approaches all new schools. We look at school’s

surrounding area and follow a set of guidelines. That’s what Mr. Swatzel

is charged with, implementing traffic controls.”

That usually means looking at putting in blinking lights and posting

signs to reduce speeds limits to 25 mph when school children are out,

Ochoa said.

“We have posted these types of signs at other schools adjacent to

arterial highways,” he said. “Traffic is heavy and we monitor the

situation, but you need adequate enforcement.”

Parents are not alone in this fight, said school board president Dana

Black. The board and the district has been discussing parent’s potential

problems with dropping off and picking up students for quite some time,

she said.

“We’re in the process of working with parents,” Black said. “It is a big

concern for each and every one of us. It was disconcerting to go there

for the groundbreaking.”