Riverside County Transportation

On a dusty hilltop above the Riverside Freeway in Anaheim, an army of construction workers in orange vests ready themselves for action. They board convoys of bulldozers, scrapers and 50-ton trucks with wheels 7 feet high to go about their daily work. On this breezy site known as Windy Ridge, these workers and their machines have sliced a path some 1400 feet wide and 270 feet deep.

Doling out the rewards of an increased gasoline tax, the California Transportation Commission on Wednesday approved $5.4 billion in new road and rail projects designed to unclog streets and freeways and nudge motorists out of their cars and into mass transit.

On a map of the Santa Ana Mountains, Sheri McNeil has drawn the path of a highway that Riverside County wants to push through the hills to accommodate the region's fast-growing population. The road cuts through Orange County's wilderness areas and skirts historic Modjeska Canyon, where McNeil and her family live close to nature in a two-story cedar house surrounded by oak trees.

Critics of a $274-million transfer of the Riverside Freeway toll lanes to a nonprofit group are planning a last-minute assault to try to derail the deal. "We need to block this thing, hold it up somehow, until we can have a thorough examination," Riverside County Supervisor Bob Buster said Friday. "We need to assure ourselves that this is not some sweetheart deal, paying an exorbitant price to these sellers."

Ending a long-standing rift with Orange County over transportation policy, Riverside County officials Wednesday unanimously adopted an array of recommendations to reduce congestion on the Riverside Freeway. The 30-member Riverside County Transportation Commission gave priority to widening the 91 by up to four lanes from Interstate 15 in Riverside County to the Costa Mesa Freeway in Orange County.

The Riverside County Transportation Commission on Wednesday voted unanimously to hire the Macias Consulting Group to conduct an $81,657 audit of the beleaguered SunLine Transit Agency and SunLine Services Group. The twin agencies renowned for their use of alternative fuels, have been accused of misspending public funds, violating federal transit law and other concerns. Their chief executive resigned in August.

To ease congestion on the Riverside Freeway on Thanksgiving Day, Metrolink will run six special round-trip commuter trains between Riverside and Orange County. The trains will run roughly every 90 minutes beginning at 9 a.m. Thursday from downtown Riverside. They will stop in Corona and will serve Anaheim Canyon, Orange, Santa Ana, Tustin and Irvine. The last train from Irvine leaves at 7:30 p.m.

The director of the county's primary transportation agency will retire at the end of the year, officials said Thursday. Eric Haley, 59, joined the Riverside County Transportation Commission in March 1998 as its executive director. During his tenure, voters in 2002 renewed Measure A, a half-cent-on-the-dollar sales tax. The commission also embarked on significant projects including the reconstruction of the 60/91/215 freeway interchange and widening of California 60, 74 and 86.

Plans to relieve congestion on the Riverside Freeway will be discussed at a community meeting Tuesday at the Green River Golf Club in Corona. The topic will be an additional eastbound lane that is planned for the freeway between the 241 toll road and the Corona Expressway. The $80-million project covers about seven miles and is proposed by Caltrans, the Orange County Transportation Authority and Riverside County Transportation Commission. The meeting is from 4 to 7:30 p.m.

The Riverside County Transportation Commission voted Wednesday to spend $1 million to widen Winchester Road between Domenigoni Parkway and Hunter Road. The county has also committed $1 million to the effort, which will fund preliminary design work and environmental review to widen the two-lane road to four lanes through Winchester. The funds will come from fees developers pay for building approvals. The actual widening could cost more than $30 million.