Orange County Transportation Authority

Orange County's top transportation official got a raise and a bonus Monday, but Art Leahy also got something he might not have wanted: public discussion about his 9% salary boost. As part of a new open-meeting policy, the public got to hear the Orange County Transportation Authority's debate over Leahy's executive pay, which will rise to $263,635 annually, from $241,862.

Extending the 57 Freeway down the Santa Ana River to connect with the San Diego Freeway in Fountain Valley is "potentially feasible" but would cost an estimated $2 billion, according to a study released Monday. The concept was first proposed decades ago to help alleviate congestion and complete an eight-mile extension of the 57 Freeway that has gone unfinished since the early 1960s. The proposed four-lane section of freeway would be elevated above the river.

Orange County's largest transportation agency agreed Monday to pay $200,000 to help fund a rail improvement project in Placentia but rejected the cash-strapped city's request that it actually take over the project. Placentia asked the Orange County Transportation Authority to take the lead in the project, which began six years ago but has advanced slowly. The work -- which is expected to result in the silencing of train horns -- involves improvements to eight street crossings.

Orange County transportation planners on Monday approved a $60-million plan for quieter railroad crossings, a move designed to eliminate ear-splitting train horns at crossings throughout the county. The plan calls for adding gates, new signals and other upgrades to 53 crossings, including 16 in Orange. Design work for rail crossings will begin immediately. Construction is expected to begin next year and be completed by 2010, a Orange County Transportation Authority spokesman said.

Orange County transportation planners decided Monday to spend $20 million to spur freeway projects during this fiscal year to help relieve traffic congestion. The action jump-starts projects that were not expected to begin until after 2011, when revenue from a renewed sales tax would stream in, Orange County Transportation Authority officials said. "I know my constituents want to see infrastructure improvements now than have to wait for 2011," OCTA Chairwoman Carolyn Cavecche said.

Nearly two-thirds of motorists surveyed support the use of carpool lanes by solo drivers during off-peak hours, the Orange County Transportation Authority announced Monday. The OCTA-commissioned survey also found that, of 1,084 respondents who use the Garden Grove Freeway, 71% believe they should continue being allowed to pull in and out of its carpool lanes at will.

After nine days of walking, biking and begging for rides, nannies, maids and laborers boarded the Route 57 bus at dawn Wednesday, ecstatic for a ride from Orange County's working-class neighborhoods to its tony coastline. Of all the routes that vaporized during the Orange County bus drivers' strike, one of the most missed was Route 57, the line that delivers the workforce that keeps places such as Newport Beach humming.

Hundreds of Orange County bus drivers were back on the job Tuesday, with the familiar whoosh of passing buses gradually returning to the streets after a nine-day strike. The Orange County Transportation Authority had asked the drivers to return to their scheduled routes Monday at noon, but only 35 showed up, said OCTA spokesman Ted Nguyen. By late Tuesday, 784 drivers out of 1,100 had reported to work. Buses were rumbling along normal routes at 75% of their pre-strike numbers.

The Orange County Transportation Authority and its 1,100-member bus drivers union approved a new contract Monday, ending the strike that shut down most of the county's public transit system for nine days. The transit agency asked its drivers to return to their scheduled routes at noon Monday and said full service was expected to be restored by midweek. OCTA will continue to let passengers ride free of charge through Thursday as the routes resume normal operation, officials said.

Orange County transit workers began voting Sunday on a three-year contract that was expected to end the weeklong bus strike and put most buses back in service by midweek. Negotiators for the Orange County Transportation Authority reached a tentative settlement Saturday with the Teamsters that would give drivers an $18.2-million increase from the previous contract. Hundreds of the 1,100 striking drivers had already voted by noon Sunday and were thought to be voting in favor.