alleymon CALTRANS: Some commuters questionthe wisdom of widening the road a few inches.
12:05 AM PST on Friday, April 1, 2005
By ROCKY SALMON / The Press-Enterprise
road Construction
The California Department of Transportation is proposing to widen Ortega Highway. The project would take more than two years. Residents are asked to offer suggestions and criticisms of the project.
Letters can be sent to:
Praveen Gutpa, Environmental Branch Chief
RE: SR 74/Ortega Highway Safety Improvements
California Department of Transportation, District 12
3337 Michelson Drive, Suite 380
Irvine, CA 92612
Safety improvements to southwestern Riverside County’s main connection to Orange County will cause major delays and closures for commuters for at least two years.
Caltrans is spending $24 million to improve a 3-mile stretch of Ortega Highway from the Riverside County line into Orange County. Work is scheduled to begin sometime in fall 2006 and wrap up in 2008, according to project documents.
Commuters and business owners have until April 11 to submit responses to the environmental documents and to voice any criticisms about the planned construction. Many commuters have expressed concerns about the work.
“If they are going to inconvenience people for two years to make a four-lane highway, that would be fine,” said Daniel Moon, a Lake Elsinore resident who works in Lake Forest and Manhattan Beach. “But with this construction, we are talking about eight inches. I think that’s crazy.”
Transportation officials said the work is needed to make the road, which is full of hairpin turns, safer. Construction would include widening the road by a few feet, improving drainage and adding shoulders and turnout/rock-catch areas.
The Ortega Highway was built in the 1930s to connect Lake Elsinore with Orange County. In the early years, the highway carried about 200 cars a day, according to Caltrans. In 2003, that number rose to 8,900 vehicles a day. Traffic will is expected to quadruple in the next 25 years, officials said.
From 2001 to 2004, there were 114 accidents and five deaths on the stretch of road that will be widened.
Plans to improve the road between San Juan Canyon Bridge and the Riverside County line have been under design since 1993.
Moon said it’s the wrong time to begin closures and detours.
“They are cutting off the only real access from south Orange County,” said Moon, who added that the closures would add up to four hours to his commute.
“I don’t think it’s for convenience and the safety of the residents like they keep saying.”
Caltrans officials said they are working to minimize construction problems and plan about 14 closures during the course of work.
During closures, one lane would remain open to funnel traffic through the region.
Joseph Carmichael was at a rest stop overlooking Lake Elsinore on Thursday afternoon. The 39-year-old Orange County man said he drove on Ortega Highway because he wanted to see what was on the other side, and so far he was pleasantly surprised.
“I wouldn’t mind coming back to Lake Elsinore,” Carmichael said.
“But if they shut down the highway, I wouldn’t waste the time driving the long way around. It would be way too much work.”