Katella and Beach Become ‘Smart Streets’

Beach Boulevard and Katella Avenue are now officially designated as “smart streets” under an amendment to the city’s General Plan approved by the City Council last week.

City officials said the new designations were made to comply with the county’s Master Plan of arterial highways, which is updated periodically to reflect street changes, such as lane additions and other improvements.

Smart streets, formerly called super streets, provide six to eight lanes of divided roadway with coordinated traffic signals, bus turnouts, no on-street parking and other modifications to increase the flow of traffic.

Katella Avenue is a six-lane divided smart street and Beach Boulevard is an eight-lane divided smart street.

Major arterials provide six-lane, divided highways that motorists use to travel from one community to another.

Westminster Avenue and Fairview Road, both with three lanes in each direction, also are now considered major arterials, officials said.