Could it Be The End of Crown Valley Repairs?

Now here’s  a topic I’ve wanted to address since the inception of this blog.  But alas, I’ve always bit my virtual tongue, or tied my fingers if you will.  But a recent article in the OC Register has me wondering, will the Crown Valley Road construction ever really be done?

 When we were house hunting in the South OC in summer of 2006 we saw the construction and figured it was a quick pick job.  Let’s just say I’m so glad we chose not to move anywhere near that mess.  Despite not living right off of Crown Valley, I’ve spent far too many evenings cruising at the whopping 2 miles an hour to span the 1.5 mile stretch from the 5 to Marguerite in a hurried 20-30 minutes.

And from what I’ve read everyone can blame it on someone else.  The city says it’s SDG&E’s fault, they utilities blame the city and they blame the construction crews.   This article squarely blames SDG&E who seems to live up to some of the fault. 

But in all seriousness, this project was obviously poorly managed.  In a former city we lived in we watched the complete overhaul of the freeway.  We’re talking removal and rebuilding of a major bridge, redesign and reconstruction of all exits and entrances, expansion of the lanes, repaving and better merge planning for a good 15 mile stretch of freeway (it was actually probably more but you get the idea).  This took the good part of 4 years- slightly less actually.  And yet in what will amount to just a few months shy of the same time we may (holding my breath), just may see an additional 2 lanes on Crown Valley Road.

According to the OC Reigster this project is set to complete now in March of 2009.  When all is said and done this project took nearly 3 years to complete a lane widening project.  The Register reports, “Chagnon [city project manager] said he expects under the current construction schedule all four travel lanes in each direction will be open by early January.

Oh but such a sweet promise comes with a price my friends.  You see, in order for this ”accelerated plan” to take place, “two westbound lanes would be closed for four to six weeks during the day as work progresses”  the Regiser explains.

January ’09, March ’09….I’m not really holding my breath.  Until then I continue to tell anyone considering living somewhere that requires travel on Crown Valley to think twice about their plans or plan to wait twice as long each time they take the route.