Ortega Highway: Unnecessary Delays Have Cost Us Millions*

Published: August 08, 2017 5 pages

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⚠️ Translation Notice: This content has been automatically translated. The original English text is the official version. Translation may contain errors.

⚠️ Este contenido ha sido traducido automáticamente. El texto original en inglés es la versión oficial. La traducción puede contener errores.

Findings and Recommendations 2 findings

Highway is one of the main arterial roads on which this traffic will travel. Until the Lower Ortega Project is complete, congestion and safety concerns will remain. Agrees with the finding. As Rancho Mission Viejo (RMV) Response: continues through its development plan in the region, traffic volumes on Ortega Highway are expected to increase. RMV is currently at the 2000 - 2500 Equivalent Dwelling Unit milestone, and with the upward turn in economy, RMV is expected to continue pursuing its development plan, which corresponds with an increase in traffic volumes on the local roadway network, including Ortega Highway. The County of Orange is not the controlling jurisdiction that is charged with evaluating safety concerns along this portion of Ortega Highway. The costs for completion of the Lower Ortega Project have escalated and are

No recommendations for this finding

probably still understated. Further delay will result in additional costs for the taxpayers of Orange County. Agrees with the finding. Although not the lead agency in Response: developing the technical studies for the Lower Ortega Highway Widening Project (including cost estimates), the County of Orange believes that delay has an associated cost increase due to time value of the money. In the construction industry, a widely used measure for construction cost escalation is the Construction Cost Index (CCI), published by the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) on a quarterly basis. Due to the improvements in economic conditions after the great recession, Caltrans has witnessed CCI increases in recent years. RECOMMENDATIONS AND RESPONSES:

Related Recommendations (1)

The County should continue to work towards timely completion of the Lower Ortega Project. Response: The recommendation will not be implement because it is not reasonable. The recommendation is not reasonable as only the State or the City of San Juan Capistrano (City) hold the jurisdiction to be the lead agency. This report inaccurately refers to the County of Orange (County) as a "Lead Agency" for the Lower Ortega Highway Widening Project (Project). However, County has partnered with Caltrans to secure funding for the development of the Project Approval and Environmental Document (PA&ED) by Caltrans' workforce. Furthermore, a cooperative agreement between County and Caltrans is currently being drafted, in which the roles and responsibilities for both parties will be delineated. The agreement makes it clear that Caltrans will be the lead agency for developing the Project Report and the Environmental Document, including all necessary technical studies, engineering reports, and environmental permits/clearances (including NEPA and CEQA). Ortega Highway is a State facility fully within the City boundary for the subject Project, and Caltrans will have better control over the progress of the Project through the different phases of Project delivery, including Right-Of-Way Acquisition, Final Design, and Construction. County was active in supporting the PA&ED phase by securing $1,950,000 in Measure M2 funds, and will continue to collaboratively support the lead agency (Caltrans or City) on the Project throughout its future phases.

* This report's PDF did not contain easily extractable text and required Optical Character Recognition (OCR) for analysis. There may be minor errors in the extracted findings and recommendations due to OCR limitations with scanned documents.