California Street closures announced

Alicia Robinson

An eight-month sewer project starting in March will be hard to miss

for residents living near California Street between Nevada and Gisler

avenues, which will be closed intermittently.

The Orange County Sanitation District announced the project Friday

and will hold a public meeting Feb. 3 to answer residents’ questions

about it.

The district plans to abandon two old, deteriorating sanitary

sewer lines that are expensive to maintain, engineer Larry Rein said.

The project will take those lines out of use by connecting local

sewer lines on California Street to another existing sanitary sewer

line that now only handles flows from a nearby pump station.

Small segments of pipe will be constructed at 14 intersections along California Street, and some pipe will be built in the parking

lot of TeWinkle Middle School.

“We’ve been working with the school district and the principals

there to keep any impacts to a minimum,” Rein said. “We’re going to

be doing most of the work during the summer.”

The project will affect traffic. Each of the 14 intersections along California Street will have to be closed during project work

hours for up to two or three weeks, Rein said. Work will be performed

between 7 a.m. and 4 p.m. Local access to homes and the school will

be maintained, and work crews will provide dust control.

Rein said the work is estimated to cost about $800,000. A

contractor has not yet been selected.

Costa Mesa Transportation Manager Peter Naghavi said he won’t know

all the details about traffic detours and delays until he meets with

sanitation district officials, but extra care will be taken to ensure

safety because the project is near a school.

The public meeting on the project is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. on

Feb. 3 at TeWinkle Middle School, 3224 California St. For

information, call (714)378-2965 or visit https://www.ocsd.com online.