Lake Forest residents’ drive through the city could soon get easier after city council members approved a series of road improvements on El Toro Road.
City officials are moving forward with three street improvement projects on the major road to improve traffic flow and increase traffic safety, expecting to cost just under $10 million.
The three projects include road widening at Jeronimo Road as well as median improvements on El Toro Road and Trabuco Road, near El Toro High School.
City council members unanimously approved a contract with All American Asphalt during their Tuesday night meeting. That contract is for $8.3 million, but according to the staff report included with the agenda, the total estimated project cost is $9.7 million.
The Jeronimo Road widening project is meant to correct a misalignment in the lanes and create an extra left-turn lane on El Toro Road.
The updates “will allow motorists to safely maneuver through the intersection without needing to shift within the intersection,” reads a staff report from a previous Lake Forest City Council meeting when the projects were discussed.
Plans for the projects also include a raised landscaped median, featuring bushes and trees, and pavement upgrades on El Toro Road from Jeronimo Road to Trabuco Road.
Mayor Scott Voigts said the landscaped median can boost the area’s aesthetic.
“We find that that’s actually a soothing and calming aspect as people travel and come back in town,” Voigts said at the meeting. “That should be a beautiful addition to that part of El Toro Road. Looking forward to it.”
The last part of the project includes a raised concrete median on Trabuco Road to replace the current painted median and delineator poles.
City council members didn’t offer many other comments about the project during their Sept. 2 council meeting before their unanimous approval.
Principal Civil Engineer Joe Claudio presented the item at Tuesday’s meeting and described that most of the funding from this project comes from a developer-fee fund for road improvements.
A portion of these projects was originally part of the Foothill Circulation Phasing Plan, a developer-fee-based program established by the Orange County Board of Supervisors in 1987 to improve roads and mitigate traffic impacts in the canyon and foothill areas.
After all the projects were completed in other cities like Mission Viejo and Rancho Santa Margarita, Lake Forest leaders took over the remaining projects, which were all planned in their town.
Developers in Lake Forest are required to pay into the Foothill Circulation Phasing Plan fees as part of development agreements in the city.
The Jeronimo Road widening project and El Toro Road median improvements — expected to cost $9.3 million — will be funded using money from the Foothill Circulation Phasing Plan fund.
The Trabuco Road median improvements will be funded using an additional $318,000 from the city’s general fund.
The start date for these projects is unclear, but according to the contract with All American Asphalt, construction is expected to be completed within 150 days once it begins.
One of the last remaining road improvement projects identified as part of the Foothill Circulation Phasing Plan includes more road widening and additional left turn lanes on Los Alisos Boulevard and Muirlands Boulevard.
Angelina Hicks is a Voice of OC Tracy Wood Reporting Fellow. Contact her at ahicks@voiceofoc.org or on Twitter @angelinahicks13.