Move of the 57 to coast looms

Dave Brooks

Opponents of a controversial plan to extend the Orange (57) Freeway

to Pacific Coast Highway were dealt a symbolic blow last week when a

transportation committee recommended further study of the proposal.

In a 4-3 vote, the group recommended the Orange County

Transportation Authority not kill a proposal to extend the 57 Freeway

past the “Orange Crush” interchange, connect it with the 405 Freeway

and then take it down the Santa Ana River to the coast. The

transportation authority’s board of directors will decide at its

April 25 meeting whether to include the proposal in a $1-million

engineering study of future transportation projects.

Board member and Huntington Beach Mayor Cathy Green voted against

the proposal, arguing that the transportation authority should simply

eliminate the extension once and for all.

“We really need to just kill this thing,” she said after the

meeting. “It isn’t going anywhere, just like it never has.”

Approval of the freeway extension would still be years away. The

plan has to go through two more public hearings before the board even

agrees to study the proposal.

Former assemblywoman and board member Marilyn Brewer said the

extension is riddled with so many engineering and environmental flaws

that allocating more money to study the plan is a waste.

“We’re going to be spending $1 million of badly needed taxpayer

money,” she said

Orange County Supervisor Bill Campbell disagreed, arguing that

every thoroughfare running north to south from Beach Boulevard to

Main Street in Santa Ana faces traffic levels well above normal

capacity. Harbor Boulevard and Brookhurst Street, for example,

usually carry 50% more than what they were designed for.

“We’ve got a mobility problem, folks, and it’s in huge numbers,”

Campbell said. “I’d like to help the people in these cities, too.”

The impact on traffic remains unclear, but transportation

authority executive director of planning Paul Taylor said initial

studies indicate that only a fraction of commuters would use the

portion of the proposed 57 Freeway that would run from the 405

interchange to Pacific Coast Highway.

Securing permission to build in the river would also be difficult.

The Army Corps of Engineers and the Orange County Flood Control

Agency control the river’s right-of-way. Getting either agency to

sign on to a proposal to extend the 57 Freeway down the river would

be tantamount to a miracle, Green said.

“They won’t even let us a remove a tree, let alone build a

freeway,” she said.

Costa Mesa Councilman Gary Monahan said the public should reserve

its criticisms of the project until after the study is completed.

“Whatever we build is going to take an awfully long time,” he

said. “It very well might not be feasible, but unless we do those

technical analyses, we’re not going to know.”

The March 31 vote comes as transportation authority employees

prepare to lobby for an extension of Measure M, a half-cent sales tax

passed by voters in 1990 to fund $2.3 billion worth of transportation

projects including the widening of the Garden Grove (22) Freeway.

Measure M is expected to expire in 2011, and it could take several

attempts to secure the necessary two-thirds voter approval to pass.

It took the transportation officials three tries to pass the

initiative 15 years ago.

Correa said a renewal of Measure M will not pass if voters think

the money will be spent to extend the 57 Freeway. An independent

survey taken by private consultant Jennifer Franz found that 53% of

registered voters in Orange County approved extending the freeway

when presented with arguments for and against the project.

“People seem to be somewhat ambivalent about this,” she said.