The OCTA Board of Directors voted at its Monday, Sept. 23 meeting to continue exploring options to improve traffic conditions on the San Diego Freeway (I-405) between SR-55 in Costa Mesa and the San Gabriel River Freeway (I-605) at the L.A. County Line. Any improvement would include at least one general-purpose lane in each direction as promised to voters when they approved Measure M, the county’s half-cent sales tax for transportation.
OCTA is looking at several options that go beyond the Measure M project. This is to further improve mobility as well as consider improvements to address the degraded condition of carpool lanes. This is in part because last year’s federal transportation bill, known as MAP-21, requires that carpool lanes operate at 45 mph or more 90 percent of the time. Carpool lanes on the I-405 – as well as freeways throughout Orange County and statewide – are failing to meet this standard.
“As the state considers policy changes that could impact the carpool network in Orange County, we need to ensure we are part of that discussion,” said OCTA Chairman Greg Winterbottom. “We will continue our commitment to voters under Measure M to build a new general-purpose lane in each direction on the 405 freeway and explore additional opportunities to improve traffic in that area.”
The I-405 Policy and Stakeholder Working Groups met last week to discuss the status of the project. The I-405 Technical Working Group also met last week to review the findings of the Concept A and B screening analysis. The PWG discussion centered on the cities continued opposition of any alternative that includes tolling and support of Alternative 2, the addition of two general purpose lanes in each direction between Euclid Street and the I-605 freeway.
Over the next few months, OCTA will examine a range of solutions such as adding more carpool lanes or developing high occupancy express/toll lanes.
I-405 project improvement cost estimates range from $1.25 billion to $1.47 billion, depending on the option selected.
The I-405 is the busiest stretch of freeway in the country, carrying more than 370,000 cars a day. Traffic volumes are expected to increase approximately 35 percent by 2040 and Caltrans and OCTA are proposing to widen the freeway to improve travel conditions for commuters.
Caltrans, in partnership with OCTA, is in the environmental phase of improving the I-405 between the Costa Mesa area and the Orange County/Los Angeles County line.
For more information, please visit www.octa.net/405improvement.
Monday, September 30, 2013