Federal transportation officials on Wednesday announced Santa Ana will get a $25 million grant toward the construction of an underpass on Santa Ana Boulevard to separate the road from train tracks.
Officials say the bridge will make the roadway near downtown safer by separating cars from trains.
Santa Ana Boulevard’s six lanes currently cross with the tracks just to the north of the city’s train station and near the 5 Freeway, forcing commuters and pedestrians to wait for passing trains. While building the bridge for the trains to cross overhead, the city wants to reduce the road to four lanes and use the space to build protected bike lanes on Santa Ana Boulevard from Santiago Street to the 5 Freeway southbound ramps.
Illustration of planned underpass on Santa Ana Boulevard to separate the road from train tracks and reduce the road to four lanes from six. Separated bike lanes and a new pedestrian bridge from Santa Ana Regional Transportation Center running parallel to the tracks will also be built. (Courtesy of City of Santa Ana)
A pedestrian overcrossing that will run parallel to the rail line to be used by people heading to or from the Santa Ana Regional Transportation Center is also planned.
The project is one of 148 in the nation that received a piece of $1.8 billion in infrastructure funding from the Department of Transportation’s RAISE program this year.
“The Santa Ana Boulevard Grade Separation Project will literally save lives by making a busy railroad crossing safer for drivers, bicyclists and pedestrians,” Mayor Valerie Amezcua said in statement. “In a busy, urban city like Santa Ana, we must do everything we can to ensure that our residents, families and students can get around safely on our roadways and sidewalks.”
The underpass will include room for future transit expansion such as a bus lane and a pedestrian promenade.
The project will also be a connection point for Santa Ana’s planned 17-mile Golden Loop trail, which will connect the Santa Ana River to destinations across the city.
The federal grant will pay for nearly a third of the roadway reconstruction, which is expected to cost $80 million.
Construction could begin in January 2027, officials said, and be completed two years later.
The railroad crossing on Santa Ana Boulevard next to the Santa Ana Regional Transportation Center in Santa Ana on Wednesday, June 26, 2024. The Department of Transportation will give $25 million in federal funding for the City of Santa Ana for the Santa Ana Boulevard Grade Separation Project. The money will fund the reconstruction of an existing rail crossing with a new multimodal grade separated underpass along with other improvements. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)
The Santa Ana train station has stops for Amtrak and Metrolink trains and for Orange County Transportation Authority buses. The OC Streetcar, a 4.15-mile light rail project linking Santa Ana and Garden Grove expected to begin operations in 2025, will also have a stop at the transportation center.
California received $65 million total for projects from the federal RAISE program. San Diego was the only other city in Southern California to get funding.
Projects in areas with underserved communities that focused on safety received priority to get funding, U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a call briefing reporters. More than 1,000 applications competed for grant funding this year.
“These are projects that are going to improve everyday life and the cost of living in communities across the country,” Buttigieg said.
Related Articles
No-fail alternative to California driver’s license test is now in Spanish
GM brings in new CEO for troubled Cruise robotaxi service while Waymo ramps up in Bay Area
What did that highway sign say? States gets creative, but feds warn of confusion
An unregistered car on the roads is sometimes OK
Most officers can cite you outside of their turfs
Leave a Reply