The boss of the Orange County Transportation Authority says the agency is on track to wrap up another large freeway project in 2024, following the Dec. 1 opening of new lanes on the 405 Freeway.
“We finished one big thing, but there are more things underway, more things to start,” Chief Executive Officer Darrell E. Johnson said while offering an annual update on transportation in Orange County in the next year.
“We’re going to have a busy year,” he said. “We have a number of construction projects that are underway, we have some that are going to start.
A year ago, the OCTA had $4 billion in projects underway. “Even adjusted for inflation,” Johnson added added, “that is more than we have ever had underway in Orange County.”
Along with funding from state and federal transportation programs, Orange County’s own half-cent sales tax (commonly called Measure M from when it was enacted in 1992 by voters and re-upped in 2006) fueled much of that work and will do so again in 2024.
In the fiscal year that ended in June, about $439 million was raised by Measure M, and current forecasts are it will net $14.8 billion before it is set to expire in 2041.
So we recently talked with Johnson about the OCTA’s important tasks in the coming year.
Q. What is the next big project wrapping up in 2024?
Johnson said improvements on the 5 Freeway – aimed at easing the crush at the El Toro Y – are about 95% complete and that construction crews should clear out of the area by late 2024.
The estimated $580 million project involved work on 33 ramps, with only one still being adjusted, he said. Overpass upgrades are complete, he added, though there is still some construction on smaller scale bridges along the 6.5 mile stretch of freeway.
“People that are driving on the I-5 in South County, it is at that point in the project where you are starting to see daily progress,” Johnson said. “You can see new lanes, improved ramps, new lighting and signage, as…
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