Ortega Highway State Route 74 Expected To Reopen This Week

RANCHO SANTA MARGARITA, CA — It has been a commuting nightmare. With the lengthy closure of State Route 74 — or as it is more commonly known, the Ortega Highway — drivers have been on edge going "the long way around" to get from the Inland Empire to Orange County and vice versa.

Now, recent reports from CalTrans Santa Ana state that this curvy stretch of mountainous road will reopen to drivers as early as this week.

"We are continuing to make progress," CalTrans Santa Ana said in a Facebook release on Monday. "Today they are repairing the eastbound roadside, grading the pipe inlet by the headwall and finishing up the slope repair."

Workers and bulldozers moved earth and continued the painstaking three-week job of getting the stretch of road back to drive-able again.

"We hope to start paving Tuesday and have Ortega open this week," it said.

As of Feb. 7, the deep voids had been filled and the road was pronounced stabilized by CalTrans. A new drainage ditch was also added.

"We are working as quickly as we safely can to get the road reopened as soon as possible," CalTrans said.

On Jan. 25, the stretch of Ortega Highway near Mile Marker 5.5 was declared unsafe due to the roadway being undermined by storm damage. On that date, a sudden dip was reported as well as cracking in the pavement, CalTrans said.

Extensive tests revealed that up to 30 feet under the pavement, the soil and roadway materials became unstable and were unable to support the road.

"The restoration will continue to run 24-hours a day, 7-days a week until the roadway is fully repaired and reopened to traffic," CalTrans said.

Photos, courtesy CalTrans Santa Ana