Orange County Transportation

Heather Churney tries to do her part for the environment by sharing the drive on the 91 Freeway between her home in Corona and her job in Orange County. But even heading home with two other people in the car, the school worker has been hit with a $4.50 toll during rush hour for using express lanes normally free to carpoolers. That is unfair and should be stopped, state lawmakers say. In a clash over how best to unclog California's freeways, Democratic and Republican legislators have united against the practice of charging tolls for ride-sharers, while local officials are defending the practice as necessary to keep traffic moving.

Orange County transportation officials on Monday approved a $624-million spending plan for the fiscal year beginning July 1 that includes several major projects, among them the massive Santa Ana Freeway widening effort and expanded commuter rail service. "Three-fourths of the budget is going directly into construction projects, which will be an immediate benefit to the economy," said Stan Oftelie, chief executive officer of the Orange County Transportation Authority.

It wasn't that long ago that Orange County's public transit system was named best in the country. Just 2005, in fact. The Orange County Transportation Authority was lauded for its service to the nation's fifth most populous county, logging a record number of bus trips and ridership growth. The agency was leading the way in green technology, the economy was booming and sales-tax revenue was pouring in. OCTA officials celebrated the honor by plastering a gold-medal logo, with their new bragging rights printed across it, onto the agency's 947 buses.

Orange County transportation officials on Monday established a new rail program office, to be headed by veteran transit planner Brian Pearson. The action came during a joint meeting of the Orange County Transit District board and the Orange County Transportation Commission, which are in the process of merging into one super agency. Pearson, 51, of Laguna Hills, is the transit district's director of development.

Keith McKean has a nightmare: He is driving along a newly widened, 12-lane freeway between Irvine and Santa Ana when a sea of brake lights suddenly appears ahead, forcing him to come to a dead stop. The freeway ahead has narrowed to only six lanes and traffic has backed up. McKean, however, is not just any commuter suffering from traffic stress. He is director of the California Department of Transportation's district office in Orange County.

For the first time, Orange County transportation officials on Monday began eyeing El Toro Marine Corps Air Station as a possible site for rail, park-and-ride and other transit facilities as well as a commercial airport.

Orange County's share of the $100-billion state budget signed by Gov. Davis on Friday includes $242 million for transportation projects, almost all of it for the widening of the Garden Grove Freeway. Dave Simpson, spokesman for the Orange County Transportation Authority, said $206 million will be used to expand the 12.5-mile-long freeway. The estimated cost of the entire project, which will allow carpool lanes to be added, is about $300 million, he said.

At an unusually divisive joint session Monday, Orange County transportation officials clashed over a proposed use of transit funds to add lanes to the Orange Freeway and make loans to the county's tollway agency and Caltrans. The Orange County Transportation Commission split 4 to 3 in favor of the proposal, while the Orange County Transit District board sought a 60-day delay on the issue, voting 4 to 0 with Supervisor Don R. Roth absent.

Drawing up a wish list designed to head off "complete gridlock," the Orange County Transportation Authority on Monday adopted a strategic plan that recommends spending $4.6 billion on transit projects over the next 10 years. "This is a commitment to deliver," said Supervisor Todd Spitzer, vice chairman of the authority's board of directors. "We have a responsibility to build on what Measure M was created for."

The state's top transportation official has been hired to direct the Orange County Transportation Authority, a job that comes with a much larger salary and, perhaps, a lot less frustration. Will Kempton has headed the California Department of Transportation for the last five years, overseeing 50,000 miles of state highways and directing $10 billion worth of transportation projects. He was appointed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to steer the state's $14-billion transportation budget.

Orange County transportation planners are closing a chapter on a spending plan that will have generated more than $4 billion in freeway and road improvements by the time it expires in 2011. On Monday, the Orange County Transportation Authority agreed to spend $41 million on a variety of freeway and road fixes, the final chunk of cash tied to Measure M -- the half-cent-on-the-dollar sales tax approved by voters 17 years ago.

Orange County transportation planners Monday agreed to fund a study on how to relieve congestion on the Santa Ana Freeway from north of the El Toro Y to San Clemente. The $1.

For the last year, Orange County transportation leaders have recited the same mantra: Increase rail service. But with a new chairwoman elected Monday to head the county's largest transportation agency, that may change. Orange Mayor Carolyn V. Cavecche, the new Orange County Transportation Authority chairwoman, said she would like to see the agency address the "negative impacts" of adding rail projects.

Caltrans on Monday recommended that several Southern California counties receive more than $2.2 billion from part of the governor's infrastructure bond to widen freeways and ease congestion. Orange County had sought $618 million from the state to help pay for projects on the 405, 22 and 91 freeways. the California Department of Transportation recommended $405 million in state funds. As expected, Los Angeles County headed the list of Caltrans recommendations, with $1.

A project designed to ease congestion on the Santa Ana Freeway in northern Orange County has officials worried about a massive traffic jam at the Los Angeles County line where the freeway will narrow from a total of 10 lanes to six. The $314-million project, begun in June, will expand the freeway from three to five lanes in each direction along a 2-mile stretch in Buena Park -- 10 years before a similar widening of Interstate 5 is expected to be finished in Los Angeles County.

For too many years, officials say, motorists have endured one of the commuting world's most hated phenomena--freight trains of seemingly infinite length chugging dolefully along, clogging miles of intersections in north Orange County. The logjams may someday disappear from the streets of Placentia and neighboring cities as Orange County transportation officials pursue an ambitious plan to route rail traffic beneath intersections along a 5-mile, 40-foot deep trench. Part of a larger $1.

Eager to lure hundreds of motorists from gridlock-plagued freeways, Orange County transportation officials on Monday approved what they called Southern California's first commuter train service, giving county residents who work in Los Angeles a reduced-fare alternative to driving. The program is expected to be launched in April and aims to attract commuters with more timely service than is currently provided by Amtrak, plus ticket prices that are to be 20% cheaper.

To the frustration of some Orange County transportation officials, a group of regional water boards is trying to get $15 million in federal money to study a proposed 11-mile road and water pipeline tunnel through the Santa Ana Mountains to Riverside County. News of the effort by the Riverside Orange Corridor Authority, formed in May, came after the group held its first meeting last month.

Orange County residents who live a long way from a Metrolink station may soon be able to ride a bus to and from the nearest one. And train riders without a car may get help going to Orange County's beaches, theme parks and major shopping centers. Orange County transportation officials, looking for transit ideas, turned over the search to the county's 34 cities, giving them each $100,000 to develop ideas that would enhance Metrolink service.