2019 WILL BE A BUSY YEAR FOR BIG ROAD CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS

It will be a busy 2019 for major freeways in Orange County.The 405 Freeway will continue to undergo a $1.9 billion expansion between the 73 and the 605 adding regular and carpool lanes and widening or reconstructing more than 18 bridges. Work will continue all year; completion is expected in 2023- It has been decades since there has been an expansion like this, Orange County Transportation Authority spokesman Joel Zlotnik said. This is the largest (project) that OCTA has undertaken. Nearly $600 million will be spenton two major projects that will start on the 5 Freeway in 2019: Adding a carpool lane between the 55 and 57, and adding a regular traffic lane between Avery Parkway and Alicia Parkway. That s in addition to the $1.8 billion widening project from the Los Angeles County border to the 605 that will continue throughout 2019. That project is expect to finish in 2021. Zlotnik said the transportation authority has been working with the cities to limit inesses and residents along the 16 miles of the 405 under construction. There will be no daytime lane closures and there is a plan for staging bridge closures, he said. There will be multiple bridges reconstructed at the same time, but there won t be consecutive bridges. It s not an easy process, Zlotnik said. Construction is tough, but the alternative is that we ll be stuck in gridlock. Some of the other projects underway in the county include building a bridge to carry Oso Parkway traffic over Los Patrones Parkway in South County, improvements along Santiago Canyon Road and other roads in the canyon communities, and a $107.4 million improvement to the 57 s Lambert Road interchange in Brea. Construction also starts in earnes