The San Diego Freeway (I-405) Policy Working Group will meet at 8 a.m., Aug. 22, in the Orange County Transportation Authority building in Orange. The building is located at 550 South Main St., Orange.
The various proposals for expanding the I-405 will be part of the discussion. Public response has been particularly hostile to a proposal to add a toll lane to the freeway. Orange County Supervisor John Moorlach, who chairs the Policy Working Group, discussed the toll road option in his Saturday, July 21 e-mail “Update” to his constituents.
Residents and public officials throughout Orange County have criticized the project, including the city councils of Seal Beach, Los Alamitos and Garden Grove.
The Rossmoor Community Services District board has also come out against the second and third alternatives for the freeway expansion.
In Seal Beach, residents of College Park East are concerned that the soundwall between their neighborhood and the freeway would have to be moved to accommodate the project—and could severely narrow access to Almond Avenue.
Alternative One would build one general purpose lane in each direction between Euclid Street and I-605.
Alternative Two would build two general purpose lanes in each direction between Brookhurst/Euclid Street and I-605.
Alternative Three would build one general purpose lane between Euclid Street and I-605 and one toll lane in each direction between State Route 73 and State Route 22 east of I-405.
“Nearly every freeway in Orange County has been improved in the last thirty years, except for the stretch of the San Diego (I-405) Freeway going from the Santa Ana River to the Seal Beach border. Adding one lane on each side makes sense. However, it would require significant modifications to the bridges that cross the freeway. As a point of trivia, the Garden Grove (22) Freeway was constructed in a manner that allowed for major streets to go under it (versus over). The next time you have a chance to travel them, you will immediately notice the difference. If you need to widen the bridges to accommodate one lane (Alternative 1), then you may as well do it for two lanes (Alternative 2),” Moorlach said in his “Update.”
“Alternative 3 was proposed as a funding source to finance the construction of the widening. We were informed that only $600 million was available and the first two alternatives would cost up to $1.4 billion,” Moorlach said.
According to Moorlach, the county could build toll lanes with separate financing that would not use Measure M sales tax funds.
“But, you have to widen the freeway with Measure M funds in order to put the toll-lanes in. Consequently, everyone will be paying for the widening, but only those willing to pay the tolls will benefit from these lanes. But, the OCTA will have revenue generating managed lanes to allow for more efficient through-put on this segment of the I-405. Unfortunately, managed lanes built by debt are still toll-lanes. And the OC has a sad history of poor performing toll-lanes, with the 91 Express Lanes being an exception,” Moorlach said.
Moorlach said building toll lanes in developed areas was a new trend.
“This is the biggest hurdle in the psychology for such a major change with Alternative 3. Consequently, we will have to see if Orange County wishes to continue this embryonic trend or if it is more comfortable following the tradition of ‘free ways,’” Moorlach said.
