Barbara DiamondPatience should be a passenger whenever...

Barbara Diamond

Patience should be a passenger whenever a vehicle travels these days

on Laguna Canyon Road.

Drivers can expect delays, lane detours and some complete closures

for the next three years, but advocates of the project to realign,

widen and resurface the road say it will be worth the aggravation.

“The goal is to get the runoff into the marshlands and off the

road to prevent flooding and to make the road safer with divided

lanes,” former Mayor Wayne Peterson said.

Grading for the project is under way, which accounts for the

current traffic delays. There will be more. The project is scheduled

for completion in 2006, with an estimated cost of $28 million. It is

on schedule, said Sandra Friedman, Caltrans public information

officer.

When completed, the road will have been moved from between Orange

County’s only natural lakes, one of which is divided by road,

relocated to the west and widened to four lanes.

Native plants will be reintroduced. Retention basins will filter

pollution. Wetlands will retard flooding. Animals will have their own

crossings.

Lanes will be divided by medians, and in some places set at

different elevations. The separation is designed to reduce head-on

collisions.

“I think the proposed changes to the road that separate the north-

and southbound lanes would be a significant improvement,” Irvine

Police Department Lt. Dave Freedland said.

“There have been a number of fatalities over the years on the

road, and the worst ones are the head-ons,” Freedland said. “The only

road in Orange County considered more hazardous is the Ortega

Highway.”

So when drivers get mired in traffic or have to find another route

into town, they might want to keep in mind what the project will mean

down the road.

“The divided lanes will help protect the innocent from the people

who are driving too fast, too recklessly or under the influence [of

alcohol or drugs],” said Laguna Beach Sgt. Doris Weaver, traffic

supervisor. “You can’t protect people from themselves, but we can

sure try to protect them from others.”

The public can expect more from the project that a reduction in

the risk of head-on collisions, said Mary Fegraus, executive director

of the Laguna Canyon Foundation.

“The Laguna Canyon Road Design Oversight Committee’s 10-year

partnership with federal and state agencies, the Orange County

Transportation Authority and Caltrans produced an environmentally

friendly design that included wetland restoration of the Laguna

Lakes, four bridges with crossings for Laguna Coast Wilderness Park

visitors and wildlife, run-off filtering systems for improved

watershed quality and a new road material for noise reduction,”

Fegraus said.

Although the foundation is not a member of the oversight

committee, Fegraus attends the meetings to stay abreast of

developments.

Clearing and grubbing -- scraping the existing vegetation -- was

the first task in the project, said Wayne Ybarra, a member of the

oversight committee for eight years.

“Caltrans was under the gun to get it done before the gnatcatcher

nesting season,” Ybarra said.

The green spray used on the graded areas to keep the hills in

place during rain storms is a bonded fiber matrix impregnated with

seed, Fegraus said.

Two northbound lanes will be completed first and opened to two-way

traffic, at which time the existing road will be closed, Ybarra said.

Construction of the two southbound lanes will come last.

The realigned roadbed will be surfaced with a combination of

asphalt and recycled, shredded tires, called rubberized asphalt. It

is the same composition that significantly reduced traffic noise on

Glenneyre Street.

“The entire existing road will be ground up and used in the new

road,” Caltrans spokeswoman Friedman said.

The project will use 21,000 tons of asphalt and 13,000 tons of

rubberized topcoat. About 600,000 cubic meters of dirt will be

excavated.

Traffic delays are to be expected.

Former Mayor Peterson, one of the City Council’s first

representatives on the Laguna Canyon Road Design Oversight Committee,

has driven the road twice since construction began in January, once

outbound from town and once inbound.

“Outbound, I had to stop for the trucks, but it wasn’t for long,”

Peterson said. “And they timed it so three or four trucks were ready

to cross. When there was only one truck, it had to wait. It was clear

they were being considerate of motorists.

“I came back into town Monday after 3 p.m., and the road was wide

open. I don’t think the disruption is significant. They don’t want

contact with traffic any more than traffic wants contact with them.”

Crews start work at 6:30 a.m. and quit at 3:30 p.m. weekdays.

“There is some anticipated night and weekend work, but they will

not involve road closures,” Friedman said. “We are doing earthwork

and working on 30 of the 90 drainage systems, with 15 completed.”

Work began on the project at the toll road interchange and is

proceeding toward the Irvine city limits.

Trucks and earth-moving equipment cross the highway beyond the

line of eucalyptus trees that front the lake on the left-hand side of

the road, outbound.

Traffic is stopped to allow the equipment to cross, but it avoids

trucking the dirt on the highway and keeps debris to a minimum,

Friedman said.

“I have been caught there five or six times in the last month, but

I don’t remember having to wait for more than two or three minutes,”

Ybarra said.

An OCTA project to add bicycle lanes to the roadway from the toll

road to El Toro Road is scheduled to coincide with completion of the

realignment portion in 2005, Fegraus said. No other changes are

proposed for that section of the road. The project will take about

six months to complete.

Patience will help drivers get through the construction period,

Ybarra said.

“Sometimes that is easier said than done,” he said. “But

ultimately, we will have a safer road, a more scenic road and a

better and safer approach to the James and Rosemary Nix Nature Center

in the park.

“I believe that overall and on balance, the project is a good

thing, particularly compared to what we might have ended up with.”

Given his “druthers,” Ybarra would rather have left the road

alone.

“But that was not an option,” he said.

Actually, it was one of two alternatives reached by the Laguna

Canyon Road Consensus Committee, which advised then-Supervisor Thomas

Riley on proposals for the road design. The majority of the committee

opted to widen the road and move it out of the lakes. Former mayors

Lida Lenney and Bob Gentry supported lifting the roadbed above the

lake level to prevent flooding, based on their belief that the canyon

should remain as it was.

“The road project is a bonus for the park,” said Fegraus. “The

change in the road, the under-crossings for people and wildlife and

bringing the lakes back together will make the park experience even

better.

“With utility undergrounding throughout the park, no typical

8-foot cyclone fencing on the perimeters, more open space and a

meandering country feeling to the road, the project will be

aesthetically pleasing as it goes through the regional park system

and will demonstrate what can happen when citizens work together.”

Riley organized the consensus committee in 1992. It met for about

a year. The 3.9-mile project was to be funded in the county’s budget

in fiscal year 1994-95, but was sidetracked by the county bankruptcy.

The state stepped in to help finance it in 1996. A groundbreaking

ceremony was held in January.

For information on road closures, visit Caltrans Web site,

www.ca.gov/district12 and click on seven-day road closures.

Information is also available from a live person on the Caltrans

toll-free help line, (800) 724-0353 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday

through Friday or from a recorded message after hours. The city’s

traffic information line is 497-0747.

Changeable signs at either end of Laguna Canyon Road will also

post closures, Caltrans said.

* BARBARA DIAMOND is a reporter for the Laguna Beach Coastline

Pilot. She may be reached at 494-4321.