Unclogging the Costa Mesa Freeway proves to be a puzzle
Orange County's central corridor defies solutions to chronic traffic. And state and county planners have few plans in the works.
Despite $240 million in improvements to the Costa Mesa Freeway since 1998, traffic is as bad as ever on Orange County's central corridor, and a persistent bottleneck remains a vexing problem for drivers and transportation officials.
Congestion on the 55 Freeway between the San Diego and the Garden Grove freeways has steadily increased since the 1990s. Traffic has become especially clogged at the Edinger Avenue on- and offramps, where the number of vehicles has grown to 279,000 a day, an 11% increase in a decade. The volume rivals the notorious Riverside Freeway's.
Caltrans predicts that by 2030, that stretch of the 55 will handle 332,000 vehicles a day on average, because of population growth and high-rise development nearby.
But how to unclog the 55 -- and where to get the money to do it -- is a multilayered puzzle.
The state is planning to build three auxiliary lanes in the bottleneck area -- a project scheduled to run from 2010 to 2014 -- but state and county transportation officials said there were no plans for other major improvements.
Transportation officials say the corridor is emblematic of many urban freeways: As soon as they are fixed, the area's population grows and increased traffic develops, re-creating the congestion.
The 55's problems are exacerbated by developments and expansion of commercial facilities, especially near the interchange with the Santa Ana Freeway, said Kia Mortazavi, director of development for the Orange County Transportation Authority.
"It's a constrained area," Mortazavi said, adding that yet another study is underway on how to improve the roadway.
The 55 is the main route connecting central Orange County to the 91. It is heavily congested during rush hours by commuters coming into the county from the Inland Empire.
"The level of service is already very bad at the peak, and lots of growth is predicted for the area," said Jim Beil, Caltrans deputy district director for capital programs in Orange County.
According to a 2005 traffic study, the 5/55 interchange was designed to reach and operate at its "ultimate capacity" in 2010. But by 2003, multiple segments of the 55 already were clogged and beyond capacity during peak periods.
In fact, a number of areas near the interchange are chronically jammed. A highway is at "level of service F," according to Caltrans engineers, if traffic moves at speeds of less than 20 mph, under stop-and-go conditions, and at times the traffic completely stops for short periods.
