Road Widening to Start this Week on the 5-Freeway South of El Toro Road

Roads will be busy on the 5-Freeway from Oso to Alicia Parkway in Mission Viejo, CA, as the road construction project of the Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA) starts this week.

This road construction is part of the $581 million Orange County Transportation Authority project which is expected to finish around 2025. A second carpool lane will be added in each direction from El Toro Road to Alicia Parkway. Also, there will be a general purpose lane in each direction between Alicia and Avery parkways.

OCTA spokesman Eric Carpenter said that there would be overnight lane closures mostly during Sundays through Thursdays in these affected areas. From 10 PM to 5 AM, lanes nearest to the center median from Oso to Alicia parkways will be closed.

The majority of road work will be done behind concrete barriers during the day, which will minimize or remove shoulder lanes. Some ramps can also be closed for up to 55 hours although no consecutive ramps will be closed simultaneously. Carpenter said that they wouldn’t plan to shut the freeways completely.

Some lanes will be merged, and there will be an addition of new sound walls. They plan to reconstruct two interchanges, like the La Paz Road. A bicycle lane in each direction will be constructed on this road for the safety of pedestrians and cyclists.

Carpenter said that more than 350,000 vehicles pass the 6.5-mile stretch daily and by around 2040, that number is expected to increase to approximately 450,000. Agency officials also said that they carried out this road improvement project to address the growing congestion in the Saddleback Valley region.

For updates on road and traffic advisories, visit the OCTA website.

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