State Provides $123.7 Million to the New 22
The California Transportation Commission plans to provide $123.7 million for the Garden Grove Freeway (SR-22), one of the state’s largest freeway construction projects.
OCTA is overseeing the $495-million project that began last fall. This project is the first major improvement to the 12-mile freeway since it was built in the 1960s.
Because of limited funds from the state, OCTA in 2001 allocated $203 million of Measure M funds – Orange County’s half-cent sales tax for transportation improvements – to focus on traffic-congestion relief for the more than 200,000 commuters who use the freeway every day. And to further accelerate the freeway’s construction, the OCTA Board of Directors allocated an additional $123.7 million in Measure M taxpayer funds for the much-needed freeway widening with an understanding that the state will restore the funding to Measure M once state transportation dollars became available.
The construction project spans the cities of Westminster, Garden Grove, Santa Ana and Orange. Improvements will ease traffic flow on the freeway by adding two new lanes in each direction and by reconstructing bridges and interchanges. Construction crews will complete the improvements by November 2005 – three years ahead of the state’s original schedule.
