alleymon I’m sure that everyone who commutes Ortega Highway is awaiting the arrival of the promised traffic signal at SR74 and Grand Ave in Lake Elsinore. With the recent time change, the backup at around 5:00pm is up to Look Out Restaurant and takes about 30 minutes to get to the stop sign. I’m one of the drivers who turns right (The unlucky have to wait another 5 minutes to turn left.) Last year a traffic cop was posted for about two weeks, the difference was incredible and I for one was grateful. I assume this was just part of a study to see if a signal was worth the cost.
According to a couple of news stories on the internet, we still have a couple more months to wait for the construction to begin. The project, which is budgeted at $800,000 has cleared a “major hurdle” where an encroachment permit from CDOT was needed. Why this was a problem is a mystery to me. Let one of those CDOT officials ride home with me one day and the permit would have been signed immediately. The construction bidding is now open and after careful consideration, and probably some wheel greasing, the bid will be awarded December 12th at the Lake Elsinore city Council Meeting. Construction is scheduled to begin in January 2007 and take “a few months”. I guess this traffic signal construction is rocket science after all. You’d think, that with the number of traffic signals in the world that it would be a 2 week project. The cost seems high too… but who am I to judge. I’m just grateful that the project seems to be underway again.
Now, for another project. Let’s widen the intersection a bit!