Newport Blvd. Will Shrink to 2 Lanes Until June : Traffic: Freeway work has brought about the crunch. Some nearby businesses are thinking of ways to cope.

COSTA MESA —  For more than a year, motorists have lamented the terrible traffic jams plaguing Newport Boulevard since construction crews began the tedious chore of lengthening the Costa Mesa Freeway.

Think it’s bad now? Wait until tonight.

At about 10 p.m., the three northbound lanes of Newport Boulevard will be closed down completely, and just one lane will be reopened Thursday morning in time for the first flush of commuters. Here’s the really bad news: It will stay that way until at least next June, according to California Transportation Department officials.

The road closure, which stretches between 19th and 22nd streets, comes at the same time southbound Newport Boulevard is also reduced to a solitary and very crowded single lane along the same stretch.

Officials originally wanted to stagger the closures so only one side of the road would be affected at a time, but they altered those plans because of construction problems that have cropped up in the 2-mile extension of the Costa Mesa Freeway. The mammoth trench that will accommodate the new highway runs down the middle of Newport Boulevard.

But there is some good news in all of this. If everything goes according to plan, all six lanes of Newport Boulevard should be open in time for the onslaught of summer beach traffic. Under original plans, the thoroughfare’s northbound lanes would have been reduced over the summer, threatening to put a crimp in the travel plans of even the most devout beach-goer.

“We’re going as fast as we can at it,” said Jim Murray, Caltrans’ assistant resident engineer for the project.

Such news does little to console merchants along Newport Boulevard, who have suffered through long months of gridlock on the street.

Though signs tell motorists that the various stores are open during construction, it’s certainly not business as usual--particularly in areas where construction has reduced the road to one lane.

Roberta and Michael Katbi, owners of White Glove Cleaners on southbound Newport Boulevard, say business this fall is half what it was last year at the same time. Dover Shores Pet Care Center, a veterinary hospital and grooming facility in the same shopping center, has seen business drop off about 20%.

The schedule at the pet care center has been turned upside down because customers don’t realize how long it will take to get there, veterinarian Bruce Bauersfeld said.

And a detour of cars to nearby Harbor Boulevard intended to allay some of the traffic has not helped matters, Bauersfeld said.

“You want people to come to your business, and when they put an official detour to take people away from you, it doesn’t make you feel too good,” he said.

On northbound Newport Boulevard, business owners say the construction has already affected them.

“Nobody wants to drive their car down the street. It’s all dirty with dust flying everywhere,” said Carrie Thurston, manager of a Subway sandwich store north of 20th Street.

Subway will soon start delivering sandwiches in an effort to increase business, which has already dropped by 50%, Thurston said. “If they won’t come to us, we’ll go to them,” she said.

Such measures are not unique. White Glove Cleaners has started picking up and delivering dry cleaning, and Newport Rib Co. has put more emphasis on its catering business.

Caltrans officials have been trying their best to keep troubles to a minimum, but it has proven a tough task.

Authorities discovered that a sewage line crossing the Costa Mesa Freeway extension could not simply be ripped out and replaced with something running under the freeway. Instead, Caltrans officials have determined that they need to build a separate concrete bridge across the freeway for a new sewage line and a special pump station on one bank.

All that work required room on both banks of the freeway trench, hence the lane closure on each side. In addition, Caltrans will dig back the banks on either side of the trench and erect towering concrete retaining walls, a task that can only be performed with most of the lanes shut down.