Refrence: North County Times - Californian

MENIFEE: Newport Road widening, realignment hits detours

MENIFEE —- While the black ribbon of asphalt on a newly aligned section of Newport Road has beckoned drivers since last summer, it will be at least three months before the road opens, officials say.

The new 1.7-mile stretch will provide a more direct route to Interstate 15 for residents in the Menifee and Sun City area, as well as those heading west from Interstate 215 or Winchester Road.

While the existing Newport Road is two lanes, the newly aligned section has been built to accommodate six lanes of traffic. Initially, it will open to only two lanes, but the other lanes will remain closed until construction is completed on nearby Goetz Road. Developers estimate that will take 18 months.

For commuters, the delay brings more traffic-related angst.

Bradley Johnson of Menifee said he has been wondering why the road is not open as he drives by on his way to work in Lakewood.

“I see the road and some new signals, and I keep waiting for the power to come on,” he said. “I can’t wait until it opens.”

Charles Andrews Jr., another Menifee driver, echoed those sentiments. He said he heads south and uses Bundy Canyon Road when he has to do a landscaping job in Lake Elsinore because traffic is so bad on Newport.

“Once you get past Murrieta Road, traffic becomes a real issue,” he said. “It needs to be opened.”

The long-awaited road that the developers of a nearby subdivision have been tasked with building has experienced numerous delays. Early problems include the heavy rains of 2004-05, the discovery of huge underground boulders and a need to remove water with high salt content.

When construction began in late 2006, it was hoped the new thoroughfare would be open to drivers by spring 2007, county officials said. But now it is hoped the road will open by July.

Recent delays include the need to move two reclaimed water pipelines along Goetz, said Dennis Chapman of Brookfield Land Co., who has been working for eight years to secure all the approvals needed to build the 1,100-acre project.

But problems have arisen at the east and west ends of the newly aligned Newport Road, he said.

“There is a tremendous amount of infrastructure to be put in place,” he said. “We’ve got multiple, multiple, multiple millions of dollars in relocations to do before we can even start building parts of the road. I’m hopeful these things will get resolved quickly, but they don’t ever seem to.”

Brookfield Homes and Woodside Homes are making the road improvements to pave the way for the development of the 2,190-home Audie Murphy Ranch.

And though the new, wider stretch of Newport Road is largely in place, there are safety and other concerns preventing its full opening during the construction on Goetz, said Farah Khorashadi, manager of engineering for the county transportation department.

When it does open, the current section of Newport Road between Murrieta and Goetz roads will be renamed Normandy Way, she said.

Meanwhile, Chapman is envisioning a future with homes and roads in place and the development detours only a distant memory.

He said all the red tape is frustrating, but fairly typical of large developments.

“People say, ‘Why, Dennis, does it take you so long to build a road?’” he said. “We’re working through the system, but it moves slowly and there are many moving parts. But the lots are spectacular, and one day there are going to be 2,190 very happy owners of homes … and we’ll forget about all this bureaucracy.”