Sitting in your car waiting for seemingly endless trains at rail crossings in north Orange County will soon be a thing of the past.
OCTA and city leaders will have a construction groundbreaking event on July 24 on two more projects that will separate street traffic from trains.
The Orangethorpe Avenue and Tustin Avenue / Rose Drive grade separation projects are the second installment in a series of projects, known as the O.C. Bridges program, that will eliminate the need for drivers to waste time idling at a rail crossings waiting for trains to pass.
The $600-million program is working to improve traffic flow and enhance safety at seven crossings along the Burlington North Santa Fe rail line in Anaheim, Fullerton and Placentia by building a series of bridges – both underpasses and overpasses.
Nearly 70 trains a day travel along the Burlington North Santa Fe rail line through Anaheim, Fullerton and Placentia, and that number is anticipated to increase more than 45 percent by 2030.
Transportation officials say these projects will help reduce traffic delays as trains will be traveling through each intersection every 10 minutes.
Placentia Avenue, which borders the cities of Fullerton and Placentia, and Kramer Boulevard were the first of the seven projects to begin construction in early 2012.
These ongoing projects include grade separations at:
- Placentia Avenue
- Kramer Boulevard
- Orangethorpe Avenue
- Tustin Avenue / Rose Drive
- Lakeview Avenue
- Raymond Avenue
- State College Boulevard
OCTA officials anticipate work at Lakeview Avenue, Raymond Avenue and State College Boulevard to begin in early 2014.
For more information, visit www.ocbridges.com.
