Friday, November 28, 2014

LCR Road-realignment Chronology '79-'88

The city of Laguna Beach has retained another consultant and formed another public task force to explore road re-alignments, roundabouts, and traffic lane options for road improvements to Laguna Canyon Road. Here is a chronology of events when re-alignment was explored in 1979-1988.

January 1988 Los Angeles Times
From 1979 to 1988 the City of Laguna Beach and state regulators attempted to find a balance between increasing car traffic flow, improving road safety and maintaining the ecology at Laguna Canyon Road's Big Bend.  In 1979 the city council voted for a road realignment from 2-lanes to 4-lanes at Big Bend.

Caltrans prepared plans for the project with review by both the California Coastal Commission and Laguna City Council with city staff acting liaison between the state regulators and Council. Each of the contributing regulators  approved or disapproved of project plans over this time period depending on plan content and project objectives.  The table shows the difficulty in the approval process over time. At four agents could not agree to the plan before them at the same time.

Difficulty in consensus process TRUE=approval FALSE=disapproval

The LAT Chronology reveals Caltrans plans were too ambitions for Coastal Commission approvals while city staff valiantly looked for an agreeable compromise. Between '79 and '86 City Council reversed their position on widening Big Bend. From '86 to '88 Council also could not find agreement despite two design plans submitted by Caltrans.  -LS


1 comment:

  1. Big Bend is not the problem, the accident was on the stretch after the light. at El Toro Rd. It's an ego race from the light to reach 65+ immediately. Changes are already approved and scheduled. But. alcohol is a big factor for 40 yrs.

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