CA-55 plan has its own traffic

The frustration was palpable Tuesday in the voices of Costa Mesa City Manager Allan Roeder and Councilwoman Katrina Foley as they had their first look at a presentation by the Orange County Transportation Authority about options for relieving traffic on the 55 Freeway.

In a large Neighborhood Community Center meeting room, chosen because of the fervent community involvement on the issue, OCTA officials unveiled the results of a recently completed study in which they narrowed down seven possible options for the freeway to four that will now be studied in more depth.

Based on community input and computer traffic simulations, the study concluded that the most preferred option was an underground extension of the freeway into Newport Beach — an option known as the cut-and-cover method — with the only close alternative being to do nothing at all.

The cut-and-cover method has long been heralded as the best solution to the problem by community members and council members alike, and Foley lambasted the OCTA representatives for what she considered to be excessive bureaucracy holding the project back.

“I think most people in this room could make this decision today,” Foley said. “I’d like to see this move forward with less bureaucracy.”

For many Eastside residents, the construction could not start soon enough. Kerry Weisbruch said she has been following the discussion for 29 years because the cars cutting through her neighborhood speed down the streets, creating a hazard for pedestrians, and they generate unpleasant noise and traffic.

She sat through the presentation with a folder in hand, its cover bulging with documents concerning the freeway.

“This presentation was pretty much just a review of what we already knew,” Weisbruch said. “In general, we feel as though there’s a lot of bureaucracy and the process is not going as quickly as it could.”

Time is necessary to jump through all of the federal and state hoops, though, according to OCTA’s project manager Michael Litschi. He estimates it would take a minimum of 10 years to begin construction on something as extensive as an underground extension of the 55 Freeway.

“There’s a process we have to follow any time we do a transportation project like this,” Litschi said.