A new push for north-south traffic relief could be in store for south Orange County with the latest incarnation of the Orange County Transportation Authority’s Long Range Transportation Plan.
It includes a $237 million proposal to extend carpool lanes on Interstate 5 from Avenida Pico to the San Diego County line, San Clemente City Council members were told at their Feb. 20 meeting.
Councilwoman Lori Donchak, who represents San Clemente on the OCTA board, reported that the updated countywide plan identifies future transportation projects in two categories – proposed or conceptual. The I-5 widening to the county line is on the “proposed” list and, for the first time, has a cost estimate attached to it, Donchak said.
“It is significant that it has been added in,” she said, “because Measure M (a countywide half-cent sales tax for transportation) is voter-approved and the money is committed at the time when the vote is taken.”
She said the project is being put forward as an extension of a $230 million Measure M-assisted I-5 widening that is due for completion in March, having been under construction for four years. That project is adding 5.7 miles of carpool lanes to I-5 between San Juan Capistrano and San Clemente. A ribbon-cutting is in the works, Donchak said.
That project began at Camino Capistrano in San Juan Capistrano and is ending just past Avenida Pico in San Clemente. The new project, Donchak said, would carry the carpool lanes south through San Clemente to the Orange County line at the Cristianitos Road exit.
Donchak said she was conveying information presented to OCTA board members Feb. 12.
She also reported that a proposed extension of the 241 Toll Road south from Oso Parkway does not appear in the Long Range Transportation Plan. “The 241 extension appears on neither list,” she said, “which is a difference from prior Long Range Transportation Plans.”
Earlier versions of the Long Range Transportation Plan, she explained, showed a state-approved route for the 241 behind San Clemente to San Onofre that has been abandoned.
Donchak said a proposal to connect the north end of the 241 Toll Road with the 91 Freeway’s express lanes does appear in the plan, with a cost estimate of $180 million.
“Riverside and Orange County have both asked the Transportation Corridor Agencies to take a pause on that project,” she said. “In spirit, it was a pause, not a stop.”
Donchak also reported that OCTA is accepting applications for $12 million in grants to help Orange County cities provide summer trolleys that offer free rides to the public. Grant applications are due March 23, she said, and San Clemente city staff is working up a proposal.
San Clemente launched its first summer trolley in 2017. An OCTA grant funded most of the costs. The city has been discussing enhancements – including a potential connection to Dana Point’s trolley, which in turn connects to trolleys in San Juan Capistrano and Laguna Beach.
Donchak said she believes San Clemente’s trolley is in a good position for an added grant, since the city’s first-year program averaged 46 boardings per service hour, tops among 15 trolley systems across the county. Laguna Beach was second with 34 hourly boardings, Lake Forest third with 21, she reported.