Red Hill overpass reopens today

Deepa Bharath

COSTA MESA -- After 10 months of work, the Red Hill Avenue overpass

will reopened to the public today, just in time for the one of the

busiest holiday commutes of the year.

The bridge, reconstructed as part of improvements to the San Diego and

Costa Mesa freeways, was raised 18 feet to accommodate new connectors

being built to link the freeways’ carpool lanes.

The $5.5-million overpass, completed a month ahead of schedule, was

formally reopened during a brief ceremony Tuesday afternoon that included

representatives from the cities of Costa Mesa and Irvine, Caltrans and

the Orange County Transportation Authority.

The bridge stands 45 feet above the San Diego Freeway and spans 540

feet. About a million tons of steel framing holds up 6,000 yards of

concrete.

The $200-million project to improve the two freeways is funded by

Measure M, the half-cent sales tax approved by voters in 1990.The Costa

Mesa City Council also allocated $19 million for the entire improvement

project. Spending that kind of money was a tough decision to make, said

Councilwoman Heather Somers, who was present at the opening along with

council colleagues Libby Cowan and Joe Erickson.

“We had to decide if we needed to do this project right away,” she

said. “We realized it had to be done to progress with the rest of the

freeway system.”

The bridge will help relieve freeway traffic, said Peter Naghavi,

Costa Mesa’s transportation manager.

“We have 450,000 vehicles going through this area every day,” he said.

“That makes it one of the 10 busiest in the country.”

The biggest challenge was continuing construction without disrupting

traffic, said project manager Leonard Sequeira.

“It’s like trying to have a banquet in your house and trying to

redesign your house at the same time,” he said. “But it has turned out to

be one of our most successful closures.”

The rest of the project will move forward as planned, said Rose

Orem-Melgoza, spokeswoman for Caltrans.

“This is only one part of the project,” she said. “We’ve already

started planning the other phases and we’re happy we’re ahead.”