Flaws found in O.C. tollway foes' study - The report had backed expanding the I-5 instead of building the turnpike. Toll road officials call the analysis superficial, inaccurate.
After years of work and careful campaigning, a long-in-the-works traffic study that is a centerpiece of the effort to stop a toll road from slicing through one of Southern California's picturesque coastal parks has turned out to be flawed.
The report, commissioned by tollway opponents, said that improving Interstate 5 in south Orange County is a far better option than building the controversial six-lane turnpike -- four miles of which would be constructed within San Onofre State Beach Park.
But Smart Mobility Inc. of Vermont, which conducted the study, neglected to account for the planned carpool lanes, underestimated the cost of condemning homes and buildings, and unilaterally proposed narrowing frontage roads.
Tollway opponents conceded the report's mistakes, but said revisions of the study still show that a revamped I-5 is a better alternative than the proposed toll road.
The Foothill South would run 16 miles from Oso Parkway in Rancho Santa Margarita to I-5 south of San Clemente.
Fixing the interstate has been a major theme of tollway opponents in public forums, pending lawsuits, and before the California Coastal Commission, which must authorize the toll road.
But as the Foothill South headed into the approval process earlier this month, tollway proponents uncovered flaws in the Smart Mobility study.
For instance, researchers overlooked the addition of a carpool lane in each direction along a 7-mile stretch of the I-5 in San Clemente, which would add about 24 feet to the width of the improvements they studied.
The oversight calls into question a major conclusion of Smart Mobility -- that only 31 properties would have to be condemned if highway designs more suited to urban areas were used for I-5.
Officials for the Irvine-based Transportation Corridor Agencies, which is planning to build the Foothill South, contend that expanding the interstate cannot be done without a massive condemnation of 1,237 homes and businesses.
Tollway opponents revised their findings last week after they learned of the mistakes. When the errors were corrected, they said, another 28 condemnations would result, raising the total to 59.
"Factual errors were made," said Dan Silver, executive director of the Endangered Habitats League, one of several environmental groups that oppose the Foothill South.
"In no way does this change our fundamental conclusion that improving the 5 is eminently feasible.
