From replacing traffic signals to constructing new bike lanes meant to keep cyclists safe, a handful of transportation upgrades are planned along Pacific Coast Highway from Newport Beach to the Orange-Los Angeles county line.

Nearly $40 million was recently announced for the improvements.

The Caltrans district in Orange County is expected to begin work starting next year on the projects that will span more than 20 miles of the scenic highway.

Two of the three projects planned will be worked on at the same time to avoid lengthy construction impacts on drivers in the area. They will focus on improving traffic lights and rehabbing the pavement and are expected to begin next winter.

A third project that will add specially marked bike lanes along the PCH is slated for November 2024.

In all, roughly $35 million from a recent batch of funding allocated by the California Transportation Commission will go toward the improvements. Another nearly $4 million was divvied out for other projects along the 5 and 91 freeways in Orange County.

Caltrans director Steven Keck called the money a “critical investment” aimed at helping the agency “continue repairing, maintaining and upgrading our state’s aging transportation infrastructure for improved safety and sustainability.”

A group that advises on state transportation policy and has a hand in longterm planning, the CTC, is also responsible for distributing money for road projects throughout the state by way of various programs, including ones that focus on maintenance of state highways, alleviating traffic congestion or adding toll lanes. The projects in Orange County are ones dedicated to state highway rehabilitation and maintenance.

The agency’s allocation “reflects both the CTC’s and Caltrans’ commitment to providing travelers and communities – as well as California’s dynamic and growing economy – with a world-class, multimodal transportation system,” Keck said in a statement.

The traffic signal project will replace lights at 19 intersections on the PCH between Crystal Heights Drive in Newport Beach and 1st Street in Seal Beach. At the same time, crews will do pavement rehab along both the northbound and southbound lanes from Warner Avenue in Huntington Beach to the Orange County-Los Angeles line, smoothing out the road and filling in potholes.

That stretch of the highway hasn’t seen repairs since 1998, according to Caltrans. The work will also include fixing curb ramps to ADA requirements, adding a bike lane in both directions and installing high visibility cross walks.

Along a roughly 15-mile stretch of the PCH between Dover Drive in Newport Beach and north of Seal Beach Boulevard, Caltrans will create “a continuous accessible route for the bicyclist and add a comprehensive Class II bike lane in both directions,” officials said.

The location for the enhancements was selected based off traffic safety investigations that began in 2018, which identified 10 spots along the PCH where there were more bicycle crashes, injuries and deaths than average, according to Caltrans.

The project, for which the CTC allocated $2.1 million, will also include repainting some roadway markers and installing sensors that recognize bikers at intersections.

The three other projects in Orange County that were recently distributed funding by the CTC include safety enhancements for road workers in Fullerton and Buena Park, improving traffic signals and lighting the Culver Drive/Trabuco Road on ramp to the 5 in Irvine, and upgrading traffic signage and highway striping on the 5 throughout various cities like Orange, Anaheim and Tustin.

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