Is a faster 405 in the future?

Residents of Huntington Beach and Fountain Valley may be able to cut time off their commutes in the future for a fee, as the Orange County Transportation Authority is considering granting carpool lane access to single drivers on a stretch of the 405 Freeway.

The authority plans to smooth out traffic problems along a 14-mile segment of the freeway between the 73 Toll Road and the 605 Freeway, which passes through Huntington Beach and Fountain Valley, knocking off about 20 to 30 minutes of drive time off a stretch that typically takes an hour to complete.

Although no construction would likely begin for seven to 10 years if the project is approved, many locals like the implications of a faster freeway. Mark Lewis, the public works director and city engineer for Fountain Valley, said freeway expansion of some sort is needed and would improve street traffic in the city noticeably.

“The 405 is capacity-deficient at the moment, and therefore, a lot of motorists exit the 405 and get onto Fountain Valley streets and drive through Fountain Valley as a thoroughfare as opposed to taking the freeway because it’s so overcrowded,” he said. “[Greater freeway capacity] would be a benefit to the traveling public, and it would be a benefit to the community of Fountain Valley, not having to deal with as much cut-through traffic.”

The authority is currently in the midst of making a formal environmental analysis of the project, with the first draft due in 2011.

Right now, few specifics are available, said authority spokesman Joel Zlotnik.

“It’s very early in the process,” he said.

The access, called a High-Occupancy-Toll, or HOT lane, is one of four initiatives the authority is evaluating in a project called the San Diego Freeway Improvement Project. The authority would also add a lane in each direction and convert it into a HOT lane, making for two HOT lanes in each direction.

In the 405 HOT lanes, only cars with one passenger would be subject to the fees. Zlotnik said the authority had not decided yet how much the fees would be.

The authority hopes the changes will compensate for future traffic congestion on the 405, which is expected to jump about 20% by 2030, according to the authority’s website.

Also under consideration are three other initiatives for the stretch: adding a single lane in each direction, adding two lanes in each direction and evaluating how much could be constructed with the current allocated amount of $500 million in funds from Measure M, a plan approved in 1990 to improve transportation in Orange County.

Authority officials hope the fees raised from drivers using the HOT lanes will help pay for the construction of other freeway improvements. The first two of the three other alternatives would cost between $1.2 billion and $1.7 billion each, according to the authority.

A number of residents who frequent the 405 agreed that HOT lanes and other alternatives would be beneficial.

“From a student aspect, it would be nice if they had a discount,” Norwalk resident Rich Kang, who used to take the 405 every week to get to work, said while shopping last week at the Bella Terra shopping center in Huntington Beach.

While Kang uses the freeway now less than he used to, he said the option would have seemed appealing to him a year ago. Students in a rush to attend classes and make it to work on time might find the HOT lanes helpful, he said.

Other Bella Terra shoppers that day had differing opinions. Bernardo Gonzalez, a Santa Ana resident who uses that stretch of the 405 “every day” to get to Long Beach, was satisfied with the freeway’s present condition and didn’t see much need for improvement.

“I think it’s not necessary for me,” he said. “I know what times I have to avoid it, and it’s no problem.”

Dee Berry of Garden Grove was open to the HOT lane idea, but not so much to the idea of additional construction on a freeway she uses frequently.

“That would take forever,” she said.

The authority, which has worked closely with the cities the 405 passes through, will hold public meetings on the proposal in the fall, Zlotnik said.