Orange freeway project nixed

Dave Brooks

Transportation officials axed a controversial proposal to extend the

Orange (57) Freeway to Pacific Coast Highway.

In a 12-4 decision with Supervisor Bill Campbell absent, the

Orange County Transportation Authority voted to exclude the extension

from a list of transportation projects to be analyzed in a $1 million

study to alleviate traffic congestion in central Orange County.

Transportation staff recommended killing the proposal after early

data showed that few motorists would actually use the new highway.

The transportation authority did, however, approve a plan to look

at connecting the 57 freeway with the San Diego (405) Freeway.

Huntington Beach City Councilwoman Cathy Green was among those who

voted against the study. She and the entire Huntington Beach council

oppose any extension of the 57 and want local government officials to

develop a plan to kill the proposal once and for all.

“Why are they going to study something when they already know the

results?” Green said. “There are major environmental concerns,

Caltrans doesn’t support it and the Army Corp. of Engineers will

never go for it. We really need someone to take it off the books.”

That might require an act of the state Legislature, which in 1959

mandated that the 57 freeway be connected to a proposed coastal

freeway that was never built. For decades, highway planners have

considered extending the freeway past the “Orange Crush” -- where the

57, Garden Grove (22) and Santa Ana (5) freeways meet -- to the 405

freeway, and diverting the highway down the Santa Ana River,

eventually connecting it with Pacific Coast Highway.

In 1991, a construction group led by Ross Perot was given the

franchise rights to extend the 57 freeway 11 miles south to the 405

and operate it as a toll road but eventually lost the deal after a

decade passed without any work being done.

No city in central Orange County has supported extending the 57

freeway to Pacific Coast Highway, although Costa Mesa officials have

gone on record to support bringing it down to the 405.

A study to extend the 57 to the 405 freeway is not without its

controversies, but it’s a study that needs to be done, said Costa

Mesa City Councilman Gary Monahan, who serves on the OCTA’s board of

directors. Monahan voted with the majority of the board to consider

extending the 57 to the 405.

“We don’t even know if it’s possible, and we need to find out once

and for all,” he said. “It doesn’t make sense to leave such a vital

clog out of this study.”

Extending the 57 to the 405 might increase business at Costa Mesa

shopping center South Coast Plaza, but a recent survey commissioned

by the transportation authority showed that local residents were

ambivalent about the project, with only 53% of voters saying they

approved the extension when presented with arguments for and against

the project.

That could translate into a lot of money for the OCTA, which is

looking at ways to renew a 15-year-old half-cent county sales tax set

to expire in 2011. Orange County Supervisor Lou Correa said it would

be impossible to secure the required two-thirds voter approval to

extend the sales tax if local residents thought the money would be

spent on extending the 57 south to Pacific Coast Highway.

“You need to have everyone in Orange County agreeing that this is

a win-win situation,” he said. “Now the merits are very

questionable.”

Correa also said the project would have a major impact on quality

of life for residents living near the proposed freeway expansion, and

that was being overlooked in an effort to fight traffic congestion.

Instead, the $1 million transportation study will look at a number

of proposals to alleviate congestion in Orange County, expected to

grow by 600,000 residents by the year 2030. Those proposals include

increasing public transportation availability, adding a carpool lane

on the 5 from the Orange Crush to the 55 freeway, or even widening

the 55 freeway.

“It will take about four months to get a consultant on board” to

begin the study, transportation authority community liaison Alice

Rogan said. “I think we’re going to try and get as much information

about the 57 freeway as soon as we can to see if extending it [to the

405 freeway] is even possible.”