(April 17, 2009) -- City of LB Traffic Engineer Dave Roseman has informed the Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA) that he is "seriously concerned about the short and longer-term construction impacts of diverted traffic" onto LB streets as a result of the planned closure (for likely up to a year) of the 7th St. ramp/bridge from the northbound 405 freeway (heading westbound into LB) to widen roadways (including the 7th St. ramp) and provide carpool lane connections in the vicinity of the 405/605 freeways.

Image source: OCTA

Image source: OCTA

In a letter dated April 9 and addressed to OCTA's Niall Barrett -- two weeks before an April 23 community meeting with OCTA and CalTrans officials at Wilson High (details below) -- Mr. Roseman spells out those concerns, says drivers will likely take a different detour pattern than OCTA expects, proposes mitigation measures and requests additional resources.

OCTA's Barrett says his agency is reviewing the City's letter and its recommendations...and he considers them useful in helping focus on specific LB issues in advance of the upcoming "open house" (public invited) on the project, scheduled at LB's Wilson High School (April 23, 6-8 p.m., with OCTA presentation between 6:30-7:00 p.m.) [further from Mr. Barrett below]

In the City's letter to OCTA, LB City Traffic Engineer Roseman writes in pertinent part:

City traffic engineers have reviewed the Draft Transportation Mitigation Plan (TMP) dated October 13, 2008 for Orange County Transportation Authority's (OCTA) West County Connectors project. The City is looking forward to the benefits of a completed project that will improve mobility and provide an incentive for motorists to rideshare and reduce the environmental impacts of their trips.

Unfortunately, I am seriously concerned about the short and longer term construction impacts of diverted traffic with the City of Long Beach.

The closure of the 7th St. connector ramp to Long Beach for approximately a year is expected to result in significant traffic impacts. The Draft TMP [Traffic Management Plan] proposes three detour routes for this closure: Westminster Ave., Seal Beach Boulevard to Westminster Avenue, and Palo Verde Avenue to Studebaker Road. The TMP estimates that detour traffic coming into Long Beach will be distributed 80% to 2nd St. and 25% to the Palo Verde offramp. These percentages add up to 105% so we question the accuracy of the mathematics of the report itself.

Furthermore, we do not concur that 80% of the traffic destined to Long Beach will exit in Orange County before the closure and travel miles out of their way to reach Long Beach. It is much more probably that motorist will remain on the freeway to exit the 605 freeway at Willow or the 405 freeway at either Palo Verde Avenue or Bellflower Boulevard.

Attached is a graphic illustrating the most probable detour traffic distribution based on our professional judgment and experience. That distribution indicates that 40% of the detoured traffic will enter Long Beach on 2nd St., 30% at Palo Verde Avenue, 20% at Bellflower Boulevard, 10% at Willow Street and 10% that will reenter the freeway system and access 7th Street via the southbound 7th Street ramp. Click map for enlarged image as pdf.

Source: City of LB [click to enlarge as pdf file]

It is strongly suggested that OCTA abandon the TMP estimated detour distribution and adopt the distribution provided here within.

Based on probably detoured traffic, it is clear that additional project construction mitigation measures are necessary within the City of Long Beach. The City of Long Beach would like to work collectively with OCTA to ensure that mitigating measures are in place to accommodate the detoured traffic efficiently with as little disruption to residents and businesses as possible.

Therefore, we have assembled a list of mitigation measures in seven project element categories. The full list of measures is attached for your convenience. The list includes reimbursement for city staff costs, pavement restoration of detour routes if needed, adding capacity to the southbound freeway connector to 7th Street, and various intersection and traffic signal improvements to accommodate and better manage traffic flows...

The additional mitigation measures listed by Mr. Roseman are:

1. Funding City of LB project support activities: $65,000 within 60 days for planning and coordination activities; $80,000 prior to start of implementation of traffic mitigation measures; $135,000 prior to start of construction for traffic monitoring, detour adjustments, and traffic signal operations.

2. Provide a microPAVER assessment of pavement conditions on selected routes before start of detours and after project completion...and provide adequate funds to restore degraded pavement to pre-project levels.

3. Temporarily eliminate shoulder and restripe 405 and 605 connector ramp to 7th St. to provide two lanes.

4. Studebaker Rd. Traffic Mitigations: (a) Modify traffic signal at Studebaker and 7th St. west ramp to provide positive control of the turning conflict thus enhancing safety and capacity;
(b) Provide new traffic signal interconnect along the following roadway segments: Los Arcos to 7th St. west ramp; Loynes Drive to 2nd St.
(c) Modify the following traffic signals to provide advance loops for system detection
Studebaker at Willow, Stearns, Atherton, 7th St. west and east ramps, and Loynes Drive;

5. 2nd St. Traffic Mitigations: Add an additional westbound through lane at 2nd St/Studebaker Rd; provide advance loops for system detection at 2nd St/Studebaker Rd; expand CalTrans District 7 adaptive signal control system to include 2nd St. from Pacific Coast Highway to Island Village Dr.

6. 7th St. Traffic Mitigations: Provide new traffic signal interconnect to connect 7th St/Santiago Drive to the PCH system; expand CalTrans District 7 adaptive signal control system to include traffic signals along 7th St. from Santiago Drive to Pepper Tree Lane

7. Palo Verde Ave. Traffic Mitigations: Provide fully-protected double-wide left turns at the following intersections:
(a) Westbound approach at the northbound 405 freeway offramp at Palo Verde...and the southbound approach at Palo Verde Ave. and Stearns St. (b) provide new traffic signal interconnect along Palo Verde Ave. from Willow Street to Woodruff Ave.; (c) Expand LB adaptive control system to include traffic signals along Palo Verde Ave. from Willow St. to Stearns St.

OCTA's Barrett says the letter shows "the City has obviously done its homework" and says "it's great that we get positive feedback. We're onboard with the concept that we do need to provide mitigation measures to try and alleviate the traffic and we'll be working with the City to find out what measures are most important. It really comes down to budget, of course, what are the most important of these mitigation measures that have to go in, and which ones maybe we don't have to put in

Regarding the scheduled April 23 "open house" (public meeting) at Wilson High (4400 E. 10th St, 6-8 p.m. w/ OCTA presentation from 6:30-7:00 p.m.), Mr. Barrett said: "It does help us ...Now that we know what the City wants...I'm able to discuss some of the items [like traffic signals, possible repaving]...It gives me more clarity for April 23 so we can start to focus on specifics."

Mr. Barrett said OCTA is studying the City's letter and evaluating it on issues including costs. "After we've studied it closely, we'll work out our position -- and it's not just a "us" versus "them" -- we're [OCTA and City] all working together to make sure this works. We'll come back to the City and we'll say we agree with you here, here and here, maybe not so much this one, and we'll discuss the issues together."

On March 10, 2009, LBReport.com Community Correspondent Daryl Supernaw first reported on plans to close the 7th St. ramp/connector from the northbound 405 into LB for roughly a year as part of a project to widen roadways (including the 7th St. ramp) and provide carpool lane connections in the area of the 405/605 freeways.

In 2008, OCTA reps met with LB city management staff, the staffs of 3rd dist. Councilmembers Gary DeLong and Patrick O'Donnell and advised them of its plans, and also met recently with area resident groups...but the story went mainly unreported publicly by others until reported by LBReport.com.

Disclosure: OCTA used advertising on LBReport.com as part of its community outreach to advise the public of its April 23 open house on the project.