Empty cable reels picked up in Corona

What gets made in Corona

Corona sits at the mouth of the Santa Ana River canyon, where the 91 comes through from Orange County and meets the 15. The city was laid out around a circular boulevard, which gave it the nickname Circle City, but its working side is the north half, between the 91 and the Santa Ana River, where business parks hold manufacturers, distributors, food and beverage companies and contractors.

A good deal of the region's manufacturing has moved here from Orange County and Los Angeles over the years. Fender builds guitars in Corona, and a long list of beverage, building-product and equipment makers work out of the same business parks.

Southern California Edison serves most of Corona. New housing on the south side and in Temescal Valley, along the 15, adds construction work, and every new street needs underground distribution.

Manufacturing is the heart of it. A production line or a new building in the north Corona parks empties reels steadily, often in batches when a project wraps up: a dozen 36 inch reels of power cable, a pallet of small plywood spools of control wire. Contractors working the housing tracts south of the city add nailed building-wire reels. Most of it is 24 to 48 inches, the range that resells best.

Where Corona's empty reels come from

North Corona manufacturers

Production lines and plant expansions empty 24 to 48 inch reels.

Housing and street construction

New tracts toward Temescal Valley empty building-wire reels and some utility reels.

Distribution and beverage companies

Warehouse fit-outs empty nailed reels of 36 to 48 inches.

How the Riverside, the 215 and the 15 south run reaches Corona

The Riverside County run usually comes over from Orange County on the 91 and makes Corona its first stop, off Maple Street, Lincoln Avenue or Main Street, before carrying on east to Riverside. The 91 through the canyon is slow at rush hour, so Corona stops are usually loaded mid-morning.

Other stops on the Riverside, the 215 and the 15 south lane: Riverside, Moreno Valley, Perris, Temecula. Reels from Corona can share a deck with any of them.