Measure M project targets interchange traffic in Laguna Hills, Laguna Woods and Lake Forest
ORANGE – The Orange County Transportation Authority and Caltrans are holding an open house this week to get public input on proposed alternatives for improving the El Toro Road interchange at the I-5 freeway near the border of Laguna Hills, Laguna Woods and Lake Forest.
The open house, which will allow the public to review the project alternatives, ask questions and give input, is scheduled for:
- 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday, April 18 at the Lake Forest Holiday Inn, 23131 Lake Center Drive, Lake Forest, CA 92630.
Parking and admission are free and those interested in the project are welcome to come by at any time during the open house to review displays and talk to project staff members about the proposed improvements.
The I-5 El Toro interchange project is called for in Measure M, Orange County’s half-cent sales tax for transportation improvements, also known as OC Go.
The project is currently in the environmental review and preliminary engineering phase. The goal is to reduce traffic congestion on the freeway and surrounding streets by improving on-ramps and off-ramps and optimizing traffic signal operations to keep traffic moving.
A draft report that reviews the potential environmental impacts of various design alternatives is available for review online at the Caltrans District 12 website http://dot.ca.gov/d12. The public is invited to review the draft and submit comments on it through May 3.
If a design alternative is approved, the project would still need to go through a design phase and full funding would need to be identified. Currently, construction isn't scheduled to begin until 2027.
For more information on the project, visit www.octa.net/i5eltoro.
