A little less jam

Alicia Robinson

Drivers new to the area may not notice improvements to the junction

of the San Diego and Corona del Mar freeways, but public officials

today will celebrate the completion of $54 million in widened lanes,

realigned on- and off-ramps and other work that took years to plan

and build.

A few last bits of work remain, such as improvements to the Harbor

Boulevard and Fairview Road on- and off-ramps and completion of some

sound walls along the San Diego Freeway, but the majority of the

project is complete. Planning for the project began in 1997, and

construction commenced in 2001, said Ted Nguyen, a spokesman for the

Orange County Transportation Authority, which oversaw the project.

“It’s just been a phenomenal process from start to finish. It’s

taken over 20 years to get to this point,” Costa Mesa Mayor Gary

Monahan said. “This is one of the major freeway projects in Orange

County.”

The 2.5-mile construction project was made up of many smaller

improvements that were reopened to traffic as they were finished. It

included new ramps at Hyland Avenue onto the San Diego Freeway and

Fairview Road onto the Corona del Mar Freeway, and a

“triple-connector” off-ramp from the northbound San Diego Freeway to

South Coast Drive, Fairview Road and Harbor Boulevard.

“I think it’ll be a major factor in helping ease the congestion,”

said Orange County Supervisor Jim Silva, who pushed for the project

from the beginning.

Before the current project was done, the junction of the Corona

del Mar Freeway -- which turns into the San Joaquin Hills toll road

as it rises into Newport Coast -- and the San Diego Freeway used to

back up from early in the morning until 11 a.m. and then again from 3

to 7 p.m., he said.

Now, he said, “it clears out a lot sooner, and once we get the 405

built out, then it will be a free flow.”

People said the project would never get done because of the cost

and the required coordination between agencies, Monahan said. He

praised the cooperation between Orange County Transportation

Authority, state transportation officials, the toll roads’ governing

agency and the city of Costa Mesa.

Although officials plan to celebrate today, they realize more work

needs to be done to keep up with Orange County’s growth. A study is

underway on how to improve the entire San Diego Freeway from Costa

Mesa north to the 605 Freeway at the Los Angeles County line, which

is one of the state’s worst traffic bottlenecks, Nguyen said.

That could take some time to solve, in part because funding for

major transportation projects comes in phases, Silva said.

“We have to build for the year 2020, but we have to plan for the

year 2050,” he said.

The Orange County Transportation Authority will declare the San

Diego and Corona del Mar freeway area a construction-free “no-cone

zone,” and officials including Monahan and Silva will speak at the

event, scheduled for 10:30 a.m. today on the Susan Street side of the

IKEA parking lot, 1475 South Coast Drive.