Wall expected to spruce up airport

Paul Clinton

JOHN WAYNE AIRPORT -- To spruce up the southeastern edge of John Wayne

Airport, county officials plan to build a retaining wall on Bristol

Street and add new landscaping to two parking lots.

The wall -- stretching between Red Hill and Irvine avenues -- will

hide an unsightly dirt slope. Sprinkled with trash and weeds on Thursday,

the slope borders the Corona del Mar Freeway.

Airport officials say the concrete wall, which will taper in height

from 5 to 16 feet, will not only cover the slope but prevent future

mudslides.

“The slope has been eroding,” said airport spokeswoman Ann McCarley.

“It looks pretty bad, but it’s more for safety purposes.”

One resident of Santa Ana Heights, a slice of unincorporated county

land bordering the southern tip of the airport, already has complained

about it.

“The real wall needs to be on top of the mesa, a perimeter wall,” said

Russell Niewiarowski, an outspoken proponent of an airport at the closed

El Toro Marine Air Station. “If there’s to be a wall, it should be to

mitigate noise, not to hold back dirt.”

Construction of the wall has stalled while the county’s Road

Department negotiates with the California Department of Transportation to

remove an easement the state agency holds on the slope.

The airport owns the property but must negotiate a removal of the

property right. Construction could start as early as three months from

now, McCarley said. It could be delayed as much as five months after

that.

The Board of Supervisors approved the $400,000 project about 18 months

ago.

As part of the slope project, the county will spruce up two

off-airport parking lots on Main Street.

The county will spend $100,000 on those two lots, McCarley said.