200 Feet of Costa Mesa Freeway to Be Re-Striped

Caltrans this week will re-stripe a 200-foot stretch of the Costa Mesa Freeway, whose lanes a local group charged are dangerously narrow.

Several months ago, Drivers for Highway Safety, a citizens group in Santa Ana, claimed that southbound lanes of the freeway near the McFadden Avenue overpass did not meet minimum width requirements set by the federal government.

The group in December used photographs of a measurement bar attached to a car traveling on the freeway to prove the lanes were too narrow.

“The southbound lanes are as narrow as 8 feet, 8 inches,” said Joe Catron, president of the group.

Closed for Construction

Caltrans had planned to measure the lanes itself when the freeway was closed for construction, but that construction was delayed.

Nonetheless, the state Department of Transportation has decided to re-stripe the 200-foot stretch “to accommodate the group’s concern for safety,” said Caltrans spokesman Albert Miranda.

Miranda said federal guidelines set a minimum width of 10 feet. Although there is some leeway, he said, widths can “never be below 9 feet, 6 inches.”

Miranda acknowledged that one of the four lanes near the McFadden Avenue bridge abutment is narrower than 9 feet, 6 inches.

The problem occurred, he said, when the vehicle used to paint the stripes maneuvered around the bridge abutment.

Rather than sandblasting the first line, Caltrans adjusted the outward lanes to the curve, he said.

The repainting will be done Wednesday, Miranda said, the same day that Caltrans will begin a new radio service to keep the public apprised of road projects, traffic problems and alternative routes.

The agency will broadcast on 530 AM.

Lane’s Use Limited

Next month, Caltrans plans to measure other lanes that have been questioned by Drivers for Highway Safety, Miranda said.

Drivers for Highway Safety was formed in 1985 after Caltrans limited one of the Costa Mesa Freeway’s four lanes to motorcycles and car pools.

The organization has maintained that the car-pool lane is responsible for a 38% increase in accidents, in part because there is no divider between it and the other lanes.

A UC Irvine Institute of Transportation Studies report last year, however, concluded that the car-pool lane was responsible for only a 2% increase, which would be expected if all four lanes were opened to general traffic.