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Grand Avenue Widening Project Environmental Impact Report Section 1.0 In compliance with the requirements of the CEQA Guidelines, this EIR assesses the potential environmental impacts of Alternatives 1 and 2, described earlier, and the No Project Alternative. The assessment of the potential impacts of Alternatives I and 2 is provided in Sections 2.0 (Impacts Found Not to Be Significant Based on the Initial Study) and 3.0 (Existing Conditions, Impacts and Mitigation Measures) in this EIR. The No Project Alternative is described briefly in the following section. The assessment of the potential environmental impacts of the No Project Alternative is provided later in Section 8.0 (No Project Alternative). hi addition, the City considered alternatives with all the widening on either the east or west side of Grand Avenue, as described later in this section. However, because these alternatives would not function effectively for traffic operations and would result in offset intersections at the north and south ends of the project segment of Grand Avenue, these alternatives were rejected from further consideration and are not assessed in detail in this EIR. Description of the No Project Alternative The No Project Alternative assumes the project segment of Grand Avenue would retain the existing four lanes in a cross section that varies in width from 80 to 110 feet wide and that no widening, bike lanes or other physical improvements would be constructed. Under this Alternative, existing conditions on the project segment of Grand Avenue would continue. The resulting cross section would not be consistent with the Major Arterial designation for this segment of Grand Avenue in the City of Santa Ana General Plan Circulation Element or with the adopted Bikeway Master Plan. Alternatives Considered and Rejected Alternatives 1 and 2 were developed based on existing constraints and fired points along the existing segment of Grand Avenue. These constraints and fixed points are related to existing road improvements and existing land uses in this area. For example, the alignment and location of Grand Avenue under the I-5 overcrossing are constrained by the locations of the piers and supports for the I-5 freeway structure. Other major fixed points include the location and layout of the intersections of Grand Avenue at Seventeenth Street and at First Street. The location of the Orange County Register and a large church on the east side of Grand Avenue were also considered as constraints to the widening of Grand Avenue in these areas. Based on these fixed points and constraints, it was not possible to reasonably consider an alternative which would result in the widening occurring entirely on either the east or west side of the street. This type of alternative would substantially shift the centerline of Grand Avenue, either east or west, and would have required substantial reconstruction of the 1-5 overcrossing and the intersections of Grand Avenue with Seventeenth and First Streets. Alternatives with the widening all on either the east or west side of Grand Avenue could also result in the intersections at the north and south ends of the project segment offset from the segment of Grand Avenue to the immediate north and south, respectively. From a traffic operations perspective, this would result in poor operating conditions because offset intersections are not as effective in accommodating vehicle movements. Similarly, aligning Grand Avenue to have equal right-of-way takes on the' east and west side of the street would not provide a cross section which most effectively accommodated the existing fixed points and constraints described above. Therefore, these alternatives were not considered in the detailed analysis in this Focused EIR. F.- PROJ-ENVAGrand eirWew Text - GranWection 1.0-new.doc Page 1-14