If bridge is built, improvement will come

Why the 19th Street bridge will be built.

Extending 19th Street in Costa Mesa to Brookhurst Street in

Huntington Beach via a bridge over the Santa Ana River will benefit

Costa Mesa by reducing traffic on Adams Avenue and Victoria Street

and will eliminate the need to build Bluff Road south from Victoria

Street to Coast Highway.

It also will reduce traffic on Newport Boulevard between the end

of the Costa Mesa Freeway and Coast Highway by offering a better and

shorter route for those drivers going between the Costa Mesa Freeway

and Huntington Beach. This will benefit Costa Mesa’s Eastside by

making Newport Boulevard more desirable for going between the end of

the freeway and 17th Street and will reduce the temptation for

drivers to cut through residential neighborhoods.

The bridge will provide economic advantages to Costa Mesa.

Homeowners will see substantial increases in their property values

resulting from easier access to the state beach and Coast Highway.

New businesses, including a major market and drug store, will be

attracted to the commercial district along 19th Street due to the

increased traffic and a larger customer base resulting from the road

going through. A beach-oriented tourist industry will develop,

offering many new employment opportunities. Private developers will

see new opportunities on the Westside and will bring ideas and money

to rebuild what is old and rundown. Extending 19th Street to the

beach is the key to enticing the private sector into financing the

redeveloping of the Westside.

To date, large amounts of time and money have been spent by the

city of Costa Mesa trying to justify removing the extension of 19th

Street from the county’s highway plan. The results of the latest

Santa Ana River Crossing Study are in and do not justify removal of

the bridge from the county plan. The study shows 11,000 additional vehicles per day using Victoria Street if 19th Street is not built,

but this has been hidden from Victoria Street residents by the way

the report is structured. Also, no mitigation ideas were presented to

show how problems related to increased traffic on 19th Street,

resulting from the bridge being built, could be satisfactorily

resolved with landscaping, sound walls and coordinated traffic

signals.

Our City Council needs to quit squandering our time, money and

resources trying to appease a few people who for their own personal

reasons don’t want 19th Street to be extended. If the City Council

members do not want the bridge, let them justify their position based

on hard facts and professional opinions. The burden of proof is not

on the people to justify a bridge, which is already on the county

plan; the burden of proof is on the Costa Mesa City Council to

justify its removal, and this has not been done.

The bridge will be built because it offers the best, most

cost-effective solution to traffic and economic problems in Costa

Mesa, Newport Beach and Huntington Beach.

* EDITOR’S NOTE: Robert Graham is a Costa Mesa resident who has

long advocated construction of a bridge at 19th Street.