Lake Forest public works details $36 million capital program, traffic projects and school safety work

Tom Wheeler, Lake Forest City director of public works and city engineer, told the Traffic and Parking Commission on March 3 that the cityhas 70 major projects in its capital improvement program (CIP) with a total budget of about $36,000,000.

Wheeler said the city finished 31 CIP projects across recent cycles and completed seven CIP projects and one operational project since the last quarterly update. Completed work includes slurry sealing on Geronimo and Maryland, a Rockfield median at Lake Forest Drive near the Shell station, paving of the Trabuco Road trail and Trabuco Road itself, a left-turn improvement at Ascension Cemetery and a corridor-wide traffic-signal synchronization on Lake Forest Drive. Wheeler said the Lake Forest synchronization project reduced average travel time by 9% to 19%, reduced number of stops by up to 39% and decreased delays by up to 31%; the city contributed about $300,000 toward a $1.6 million project funded largely through OCTA.

Wheeler outlined the programstatus: 13 projects ($7 million) completed in 2023 and 18 projects ($10 million) completed in 2024, for 31 total finished projects in the current CIP cycle. He reported 11 projects in construction, 11 projects beginning construction or procurement, 10 projects in design and seven in pre-design.

The construction list included three intersection widening projects (Geronimo and Lake Forest…