Freeway

Next month, the Costa Mesa City Council will take a formal position regarding the proposed controversial expansion of the San Diego (405) Freeway through Costa Mesa. It is critical for the residents to become educated and speak out about what impact this project will have on our city. For those not familiar with the plan, California Department of Transportation and the Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA) are proposing to widen the 405 from the Corona del Mar (73) Freeway, to the San Gabriel River (605)

About 150 people crammed into the Victoria Room at the Costa Mesa Neighborhood Center Monday night, ready to question a number of plans to ease congestion at the 55 Freeway’s end. Residents scrutinized the proposals for almost an hour during a question and answer session put forth by the Orange County Transportation Authority and LSA Associates, the firm contracted to develop them. While OCTA says 100,000 vehicles use Newport Boulevard every day, residents at the meeting cited Caltrans as saying 180,000 vehicles use the thoroughfare.

A new university study released this week confirms what many here already know: Orange County has some of the most congested freeways in the nation. California can boast — or loathe — that it has nine of the 10 most clogged stretches of freeway in the country, with a majority in Los Angeles County. But just take a short drive southbound on the San Diego (405) or Santa Ana (5) freeways to the O.C., and the situation isn't much better. According to the study by an institute at Texas A&M University, parts of the 405, 5 and Costa Mesa (55)

The Costa Mesa City Council will discuss medical marijuana, a county project to widen the San Diego (405) Freeway and allocating thousands in community block grants to local nonprofits at a study session Monday afternoon. First up, local dispensary owner Jeff Byrne and an associate from Northern California will talk about the city's management of medical marijuana, which has proved itself a legal riddle for law enforcement in the city. The city will also review plans to widen the 405, with one proposed plan adding lanes to the Corona del Mar (73)

Two people were killed late Sunday in a head-on collision on the Corona del Mar (73) Freeway when one of the drivers was reportedly traveling in the wrong direction. Belia Padilla, 22, of Huntington Beach, entered the freeway using the Birch Street offramp, according to the California Highway Patrol. After getting onto the freeway, she drove north in the southbound lanes. Padilla accelerated her 2001 Honda Accord to freeway speed before crashing into a 1997 Chevrolet Blazer driven by Nathaniel Jacobs, 21, of San Diego.

Costa Mesa Police are looking for a man who shot and critically injured another driver over the weekend in what investigators consider a road-rage attack on the Costa Mesa (55) Freeway. The gunman shot Costa Mesa resident Duane Kressin in the chest after a dispute on the freeway. At about 5:45 p.m. Saturday, Kressin was being driven by a friend in his own vehicle north on the 55 Freeway when they were cut off by the gunman in a pickup truck. The gunman stopped his truck in front of Kressin's vehicle on the off-ramp near Del Mar, authorities said.

The puzzling circumstances surrounding a Pomona teenager’s death as he was hit by a car while running across the 405 Freeway Thursday night has left both authorities and his friends with nothing but questions. Raphael Nunez, 18, was killed about 11:20 p.m. He was hit by a car, witnesses said, as he tried to dart across northbound traffic at Bristol Street from the center divider, authorities said. “It’s completely unusual and we’re sick about it because he’s 18 and had his entire life in front of him,” said Susie Iredale, a close friend of Nunez.

Dave Brooks Transportation officials axed a controversial proposal to extend the Orange (57) Freeway to the 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.

Alicia Robinson You'd think anyone who's been on the 55 Freeway at rush hour -- which is more like "rush three hours" -- would applaud the Orange County Transportation Authority for working on ways to solve the area's traffic congestion. But it turns out not everyone is cheering the authority's ideas. One major, controversial proposal includes extending the Orange (57) Freeway from the Garden Grove (22) Freeway to Coast Highway along the Santa Ana River channel.

Two car accidents within minutes of each other on the northbound 405 Freeway on Tuesday morning sent three people to the hospital, including one to a nearby trauma center, authorities said Tuesday. During the morning rush hour at 7:39 a.m. four vehicles slammed into each other on the northbound 405 Freeway north of Bristol Street in Costa Mesa, California Highway Patrol officials said. The accident blocked the left three lanes for more than an hour. Details were not immediately available on how the accident happened, but authorities said one person was sent to Western Medical Center’s Trauma Center in Santa Ana with moderate to serious injuries.

Next month, the Costa Mesa City Council will take a formal position regarding the proposed controversial expansion of the San Diego (405) Freeway through Costa Mesa. It is critical for the residents to become educated and speak out about what impact this project will have on our city. For those not familiar with the plan, California Department of Transportation and the Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA) are proposing to widen the 405 from the Corona del Mar (73) Freeway, to the San Gabriel River (605)

If the Orange County Transportation Authority doesn't widen the San Diego (405) Freeway in Costa Mesa, an existing bottleneck could relocate from Fountain Valley to Costa Mesa, transportation officials said Tuesday. In his update to the Costa Mesa City Council about OCTA's three scenarios to improve the 405, project manager Niall Barrett said extending the project into the section south of Euclid Street onto the Corona del Mar (73) Freeway is the best option to manage congestion.

The Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA) will update the Costa Mesa City Council on Tuesday on the agency's efforts to widen the San Diego (405) Freeway and possibly the Corona del Mar (73) Freeway. The projects could impact residential sections of Costa Mesa, and many residents are opposed. For years, OCTA has been working with the state Department of Transportation on how to widen a stretch of the 405 in Orange County. In 2006, OCTA approved the idea of examining a few scenarios that added one to two lanes in each direction between the San Gabriel (605)

Members of a Vietnamese street gang were convicted Tuesday in a 1995 cold-case slaying in Costa Mesa, authorities said. The four men - Anthony Paul Johnson Jr., 35, of Westminster; Giang Thuy Nguyen, 36, of Fountain Valley; Tam Hung Nguyen, 36, of Riverside; and Truc Ngoc Tran, 34, of Santa Ana - were found guilty of one felony count of murder and one felony count of conspiracy to commit murder, with sentencing enhancements for lying in...

An overturned cement truck slowed traffic on the San Diego (405) Freeway in Irvine on Thursday, authorities said. The truck rolled over on the center median of the southbound lane near Sand Canyon Avenue about 3:49 p.m., said California Highway Patrol Officer Gabe Montoya. A SigAlert was issued for the carpool lane. The driver of the truck was injured, according to media reports, but it did not appear that other drivers sustained injuries. — Lauren Williams Twitter: @lawilliams30

A new university study released this week confirms what many here already know: Orange County has some of the most congested freeways in the nation. California can boast — or loathe — that it has nine of the 10 most clogged stretches of freeway in the country, with a majority in Los Angeles County. But just take a short drive southbound on the San Diego (405) or Santa Ana (5) freeways to the O.C., and the situation isn't much better. According to the study by an institute at Texas A&M University, parts of the 405, 5 and Costa Mesa (55)

LAGUNA BEACH — The San Joaquin Hills Transportation Corridor (73 Freeway) has run into a detour in Laguna Beach. A request by the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) to sign a freeway agreement related to the road that connects Newport Beach to Aliso Viejo was delayed at the Sept. 6 Laguna Beach City Council meeting. Laguna Beach officials opposed construction of the roadway and much of the sentiment against it remains. The 73 was inherited by Caltrans from the Transportation Corridor Agency, which constructed it, but the standard freeway agreement was overlooked in the process, according to a Laguna Beach staff report.

COSTA MESA — The city and Orange County Transportation Authority have tapped an engineering firm to expand earlier studies on extending the Costa Mesa (55) Freeway. Lowell, Mass.-based TRC Companies, Inc. was awarded a $1.1-million contract this week to evaluate traffic circulation at the 55 Freeway-Newport Boulevard exit into Costa Mesa. "This is a longterm project that we've had on our books for a long, long time," said Costa Mesa Public Services Director Peter Naghavi.

Capitalizing on someone's misfortune is not usually good business. But what if a catastrophe is forecast far in advance? Travel marketing executives in Newport Beach have seized on the looming San Diego (405) Freeway shutdown this weekend . They've created package deals and launched an advertising blitz to lure Angelenos to Newport's "tranquil" hotels and resorts. As the leisure travel market continues to rebound, hoteliers are looking to fill rooms that might otherwise be taken, especially on a summer weekend.

A three-car crash on the San Diego (405) Freeway in Costa Mesa sent three people to the hospital Wednesday, a California Highway Patrol officer said. The crash at 8:23 a.m. sent one person to the Kaiser Permanente Irvine Medical Center and two to Hoag Hospital in Newport Beach, said CHP Officer Denise Quesada. Their injuries were minor, said Brenda Emrick, a spokeswoman for Costa Mesa Fire Department. The accident happened at the southbound 405 connector to the southbound Corona del Mar (73)