Public works director details $36 million, 70-project CIP; 11 projects in construction

Tom Wheeler, Lake Forest City public works director, told the Planning Commission on Feb. 6, 2025, that the city’s two-year capital improvement program (CIP) contains about 70 projects with a total budget of roughly $36,000,000 and that roughly 30 projects have been completed so far.

Why this matters: the CIP funds street, drainage and park work across the city; several traffic and pedestrian-safety projects are already in construction or close to bidding, and one corridor project relied on outside grant money to reduce travel times.

Wheeler said the city completed seven CIP projects and one operational project since the last quarterly update, and that the two-year CIP has invested about $17,500,000 back into the program over the last two years. He listed recent completions including slurry sealing on Geronimo (Jeronimo) and Maryland arterials, restriping near the intermediate school on Serrano, replacement of raised delineators on Rockfield near a Shell station, paving of the trail and roadway along Trabuco Road and a traffic-signal synchronization project on Lake Forest Drive.

On the Lake Forest Drive synchronization project, Wheeler said the city used matching grants from the Orange County Transportation Authority and spent about $300,000. "We've finished the traffic synchronization project along Lake Forest Drive," he said, and reported…