Feb.

11, 2013
OCTA Celebrates with 100,000 for Lunar New Year Collaborative Shifts into High Gear with Bike Talk South O.C. Projects Building Momentum

Orange County Projects Reach Major Milestones with Groundbreaking and Completion Events Next Week

Crews wrap up work on the Riverside Freeway (SR-91) lane widening project, reaching a milestone in the series of freeway improvement projects that add a new six-mile lane in each direction of the SR-91 between the Costa Mesa Freeway (SR-55) and the Eastern Toll Road (SR-241).

Major transportation enhancement projects are set to break ground as OCTA and Caltrans also commemorate the completion of a project milestone next week. Caltrans will host a groundbreaking ceremony for the San Diego Freeway (I-5) / Ortega Highway Interchange Improvement Project on Wednesday, Feb. 20, marking the beginning of the $86million, two-year project that will reconstruct Ortega Highway at the I-5 in San Juan Capistrano. The same day, the city of Costa Mesa is holding a ribbon cutting ceremony for the Fairview Park Wetlands and Riparian Habitat Project in Costa Mesa. OCTA has contributed $2 million of Measure M2 freeway environmental mitigation program funds for this project, Directors Pat Bates and John Moorlach will be speaking at the ceremony. OCTA and Caltrans also will be hosting an event to celebrate the completion of the Riverside Freeway (SR-91) Westbound and Eastbound Lane Widening project on Thursday, Feb. 21. The completion of this project marks the addition of a six-mile lane in each direction of the SR-91 and is the second in a series of improvement projects on this freeway.

Transportation Becomes Focus of Anaheim's Vision

OCTA outreach staff participated in Anaheims State of the City event last Monday to share information about the Orange Freeway (SR-57), the Riverside Freeway (SR-91), O.C. Bridges and other construction projects. Anaheim Mayor Tom Tait addressed more than 800 people at the City National Grove of Anaheim to highlight the citys strong economy and his goals for the upcoming year. Tait also provided an update of OCTA projects that affect Anaheim and the role these projects play in improving the quality of life for Orange County residents.

As part of the outreach team for the SR-57 project, OCTA Community Relations Specialist Ryan Romeos provides information about the freeway widening project at Anaheim's State of the City event that highlighted OCTA projects in the area.

Less time on the road means more time with family and neighbors,Tait said, explaining that the freewaywideningprojectsareontracktoreducetrafficandimprovemobilityfordrivers. Tait highlighted how commuters soon will be enjoying new lanes on the SR-91 in East Anaheim when they officially open later this month as well as the upcoming additional 8-mile lane on the SR-5 7 project, which is on track to be completed by the end of 2014.

OCTA Joins 100,000 People at Tet Festival To Celebrate Lunar New Year of the Snake

Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez welcomes human rights activist Quan Quoc Nguyen, an American citizen, who was reunited with his family just in time for the Tet holiday. OCTA Director Matthew Harper dons a hat as he enjoys the colorful festivities under the bright sky.

More than 100,000 people gathered from Friday to Sunday to celebrate the Lunar New Year at the Tet Festival in Garden Grove Park. Many families utilized the OCTA bus that transported them to the event site transformed by thousands of university students into a Vietnamese cultural heritage center with ancient temples, iconic symbols of the former capital of Saigon, traditional outdoor markets and altars with exotic tropical fruits, sticky rice cakes and other offerings for the Tet holiday. With 200,000 people of Vietnamese descent, Orange County boasts the largest Vietnamese population outside of Asia. OCTA partnered with the Tet Festival to provide participants who showed their bus pass to enjoy the festivities for $1, a $4 discount.

The annual festival draws visitors throughout the U.S. and as far away as Europe, Australia and Asia, making it the largest event celebrating the Lunar New Year outside of Vietnam. Participants experienced traditional entertainment, a lion dance, a massive firecracker display, Asian food and a variety of Orange County vendors and organizations with proceeds reinvested to sponsor cultural and educational programs within the community, said Tet Chair of the Union of VietnameseStudentAssociationsBillyL.

Bao Mai of Garden Grove leads a traditional procession to mark the beginning of the celebration of the Lunar New Year at the Tet Festival at Garden Grove Park where participants enjoyed the sights, sounds and scents of Vietnam.

OCTA representatives also welcomed festival-goers at a booth near the entrance, wishing them health, happiness and prosperity for the new year of the snake.

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OCTA joined in celebrating one of the world's largest Tet celebrations with more than 100,000 people including community leaders and members to commemorate the start of the Lunar New Year. Visit OCTA's YouTube page for more transportation videos.

We were thrilled to work with the Orange County Transportation Authority this year to reward OCTA riders,said Le, who wore a traditional red Vietnamese ao dai and headdress to represent fortune and prosperity. Our partnership helped reduce traffic and went a long way to help promote public transportation. Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez, OCTA Director and Garden Grove City Councilman Steve Jones, OCTA Director and Huntington Beach City Councilman Matthew Harper joined other dignitaries for a special ceremony Saturday morning to commemorate the holiday and honor those who sacrificed for the nations freedoms. The celebration for the Lunar New Year continues Saturday, Feb. 16. OCTA is offering the chance to win 50 free Metrolink round-trip tickets to Golden Dragon parade in Los Angeles as well as other prizes by spinning a prize wheel at the Irvine Metrolink station, 15215 Barranca Parkway in Irvine. The event begins at 8 a.m. with a colorful lion dance, other entertainment and free pastries with refreshments before participants board the 9 a.m. train to continue the celebration in Chinatown in downtown L.A. Visit www.octa.net/lunar2013 for details.

Talks and Tour Shift Bikeway Collaborative into High Gear

To help make Orange County a more bicyclefriendly place, OCTA hosted a bike tour and meeting at Huntington Beach last Tuesday to discuss the countys bicycle infrastructure. OCTAs project development team met to begin identifying regional bikeway corridors for the Districts 1 and 2 Bikeway Collaborative, a planningeffortthatwillbringlocaljurisdictions together to develop a bikeways strategy for more than a dozen Orange County cities in the firstandseconddistricts. The tour was a very insightful exercise for the project team,OCTA Transportation Analyst Carolyn Mamaradlo said. Touring Huntington Beach really demonstrated the great potential for biking and how to design bikeways for various user groups.

OCTA's project development team takes a tour through Huntington Beach by bike, viewing first-hand the potential for bikeway corridors in the area and in other cities in the First and Second districts.

The project development team, composed of Planning and Public Works staff from 14 local jurisdictions, will identify regional bikeway corridors that connect to major activity centers such as major employment areas, transportation centers, colleges and universities. Once selected, these bikeway corridors will be the foundation for design recommendations to help local jurisdictions implement bicycle-friendly infrastructure. OCTA received approximately $700,000 from the Orange County Council of Governments to

conduct regional bikeways planning for each of the supervisorial districts in Orange County. The Districts 1 and 2 Bikeway Collaborative is expected to be complete by summer 2014. Together, the First and Second districts encompass portions of the cities of Buena Park, Costa Mesa, Cypress, Fountain Valley, Garden Grove, Huntington Beach, La Palma, Los Alamitos, Newport Beach, Santa Ana, Seal Beach, Stanton and Westminster.

I-5 Outreach Team Shares Project Updates with South County Community
The San Diego Freeway (I-5) project team continues to be active in the South County community as the freeway improvement project makes way to improve mobility for motorists and commuters in the busy region. OCTAstaffpresentedinformation to the Laguna Niguel City Council last Tuesday about the ongoing Corona Del Mar Freeway (SR-73) to El Toro Road project that will provide freeway improvements to improve traffic flow and mobility and reduce congestion throughout the project area.

OCTA Project Engineer Hamid Torkamanha shares the different project alternatives that are under consideration for the Corona Del Mar Freeway (SR-73) to El Toro Road project with the Laguna Niguel City Council.

Approximately 358,000 vehicles travel the I-5 between El Toro Road and the SR-73 daily and planners anticipate traffic volumes will increase 25 percent by 2045, raising the total to 448,000 vehicles per day. Project alternatives are still being studied, but highlights include the extension of the second carpool lane to Alicia Parkway and the possible addition of one or two general purpose lanes as well as the reconstruction of Avery Parkway and La Paz Road interchanges. Construction is expected to begin in 2018. The outreach team continued sharing information at the San Juan Capistrano farmers market last Wednesday, a weekly event in downtown San Juan Capistrano that draws hundreds of residents. Dozens of participants visited the OCTA booth where the project team shared information on the I-5 South County Improvement Project from Avenida Pico to San Juan Creek Road that is set to break ground later this year. The project will complete a carpool lane in both directions in between San Juan Capistrano to San Clemente as well as make major improvements to the Avenida Pico interchange.

Yorba Linda City Council Learns About Project Milestones

As projects in the area move forward toward major milestones, OCTAs Capital Programs team updated the Yorba Linda City Council on ongoing activity in north and northeast Orange County. Residents joined city staff and council members at the presentation last Tuesday. OCTAs team shared with city leaders that the project to add lanes to the Riverside Freeway (SR-91) is on track for completion later this month. Completing this project marks a major milestone of adding a sixmile land in each direction of SR-91 in Orange County. The team also provided an overview of the northbound widening project for the Orange Freeway (SR-57) that is adding a new 8-mile lane from Katella Avenue in Anaheim to Lambert Road in Brea.

Yorba Linda City Council members listen in to OCTA Program Manager Pradeep Gunaratne's presentation about ongoing activity for the SR-91, SR-57 and O.C. Bridges projects in north and northeast Orange County.

OCTA staff explained that reconstruction of the northbound Imperial Highway ramp would likely start later this spring or summer and that OCTAs outreach team will be working to keep the community informed about the activity. Finally, the team wrapped up the presentation with information about activity on the O.C. Bridges projects that is delivering seven grade separations along the Orangethorpe / BNSF railroad corridor. Construction will begin in 2013. Mayor Tom Lindsey, along with Mayor Pro Tem Craig Young and fellow councilmembers Anderson, Hernandez and Schwing, thanked OCTA for the project report and forecast. For more information on these projects, please contact Program Manager Pradeep Gunaratne at (714) 560-5648 or by email at pgunaratne@octa.net.

OCTA Helps Seniors Get Onboard with Transit

OCTA Senior Customer Relations Representative Nicci La Piana will present information on how to ride the bus at two different locations next week. La Piana will host a senior presentation at the Linbrook Court Senior Apartments from 11 to 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 12 at 2240 W. Lincoln in Anaheim. La Piana will provide additional information at the Housing and Transportation Committee of Orange County from 9:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. on Thursday, Feb. 14 at 1300 S. Grand Ave. in Santa Ana.

Jan. 30 & Jan. 31 The San Clemente Times and Orange County Register posted articles about the I5 Widening Project, including the expansion at Avenida Pico interchange scheduled to begin construction in 2014. Jan. 31 The Orange County Register penned an announcement about the Metrolink Ducks Express providing roundtrip, weeknight train service to Anaheim Ducks games for $7, with special discounts for seniors and youths. Jan. 31 & Feb. 6 The Mission Viejo Life Blog and Orange County Register published articles about OCTA providing the city a grant for senior transportation programs. Jan. 31 & Feb. 4 The Orange County Register and The Daily Titan published an update about planned construction in Fullerton to separate train and vehicle traffic at State College Boulevard and RaymondAvenuebybuildingunderpasses.Theprojectissettobeginin2014. Feb. 1 to Feb. 6 The Los Alamitos-Seal Beach Patch, Belmont Shore-Naples Patch and Orange County Register posted construction closures for portions of the West County Connectors project. The OC Breeze and Los Alamitos-Seal Beach Patch announced OCTAs launch of real-time project closure and detour information using Google Maps. Feb. 3 & Feb. 5 The Los Alamitos-Seal Beach Patch and Cerritos-Artesia Patch wrote about the ongoing investigation into the Jan. 29 incident when a construction crane fell and temporarily blocked the road from the eastbound Garden Grove (SR-22) Freeway to the northbound San Gabriel River (I605)Freeway. Feb. 4 & Feb. 5 The Orange County Register, Temecula Patch, San Juan Capistrano Patch and South West Riverside News Network wrotearticles about the Feb. 19 scheduled start of construction for the $86-million I-5 Ortega Highway Interchange Improvement project. Feb. 5 & Feb. 6 The Los Angeles Times, Daily Pilot, OC Breeze, Orange County Register and Laguna Beach Independent reported on the Feb. 10 OCTA bus fare increase, the first rise since 2009, which was implemented to maintain the farebox recovery ratio required for state funding. Feb. 5 The Orange County Register published a progress report on the Orange Freeway (SR-57)

Widening project, which is moving ahead on schedule and approximately 55 percent complete.

Feb. 6 The Orange County Register and San Juan Capistrano Patch penned articles about OCTA expanding its public outreach contract in San Juan Capistrano in an effort to mitigate construction impacts for the I-5 Ortega Highway Interchange Improvement project, scheduled to begin later this month. Feb. 6 UT San Diego wrote an announcement about CaltransI-5 Ortega Highway Interchange Improvement project public information meeting scheduled for Feb. 9 at 6 p.m. at the Animal Friends of the Valleys Shelter in Wildomar.

The Orange County Register, Temecula Patch, San Juan Capistrano Patch and South West Riverside News Network write about the Feb. 19 scheduled start of construction for the I-5 Ortega Highway Interchange Improvement project.

Feb. 4 to Feb. 8 Bruce Gadbois, 2013 Mass Transit and Passenger Rail Security and Emergency Management Roundtable, Washington, D.C.

For the latest media news, follow Joel Zlotnik, media relations manager, on Twitter.

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