San Joaquin Hills

I feel compelled to alert the public to the misunderstanding of the ability of the San Joaquin Hills transportation corridor to alleviate traffic. In a Jan. 19, 1986, article in The Times, there is a map that shows that, when originally planned, the corridor (which would be 8 to 12 lanes wide and free of cost) would be filled up 73% by new homes alone. Well, now the corridor is to be only 4 lanes and it's going to be a toll road. This will actually add traffic, not alleviate it. Also, in the areas where these toll roads connect onto Interstates 5 and 405, what will occur?

When it opened during the 1990s, Orange County's $2.4-billion tollway system was touted as an innovative way to build public highways without taxpayer money. Today, the roads offer smooth sailing for gridlock-weary commuters willing to pay the price. But far fewer people are using the turnpikes than officials predicted, which means the highways generate far less revenue than expected to retire their debts. There have long been questions about the long-term financial viability of the San Joaquin Hills and Foothill-Eastern corridors.

Sign vandals have struck again in south Orange County's San Joaquin Hills. After a months-long lull from defacing highway signs in Laguna Canyon, vandals painted over two new county signs advertising the Pelican Hill Road construction project on the Coast Highway just south of Corona del Mar. County officials discovered the vandalism Thursday and sent out a work crew Friday to clean off the paint.

Operators of Orange County's toll road network are planning to eliminate cash payments and toll booth jobs as they try to squeeze more out of their financially strapped pay-to-drive highways. Drivers who use the route 73, 261, 241 and 133 toll roads will need to have payment accounts linked to their transponders or their license plates in order to use the corridors. Cash payments will be phased out over the next 16 months. The FasTrak transponders or the license-plate accounts electronically deduct money from a driver's credit line.

Congratulations to staff writers Eric Bailey and Jeffrey Perlman on their stories about the proposed San Joaquin Hills tollway (Feb. 10). The tollway is a billion-dollar boondoggle designed not to relieve present unbearable traffic congestion but to facilitate further overdevelopment of south Orange County by two marauding giants, the Irvine and Mission Viejo companies. The key piece of information provided by The Times is this: "Along the San Joaquin Hills route alone, 105,000 new homes are expected, as well as 54.7 million square feet of industrial and commercial development."

Builders of the proposed San Joaquin Hills toll road announced Thursday that the highway had received final approval of the Federal Highway Administration. "This is certainly a major milestone," said Lisa Telles, a spokeswoman for the Transportation Corridor Agencies. Telles said the toll road now needs the approval of only one more federal agency, the Army Corps of Engineers.

An Orange County Superior Court judge, ruling that "the public may have been misled" by the terms of a 1989 agreement, blocked work Friday on a 1.2-acre section of the San Joaquin Hills toll road, a 17.5-mile highway linking Newport Beach and San Juan Capistrano. Judge Eileen C. Moore issued a temporary restraining order halting any work on the section, which once was part of the UC Irvine campus.

In a sweeping plan that could set the tone for the entire San Joaquin Hills Toll Road, the mayors of Irvine and Newport Beach have proposed limiting the highway through their cities to six lanes, requiring a mass-transit guideway and formulating other regulations to encourage ride-sharing. The agreement would also impose a partial ban on truck traffic and limit any future expansion to two more lanes, which would be restricted to car pools. "It makes sense. It's affordable.

The board chairwoman of the San Joaquin Hills toll road on Tuesday called for an independent financial analysis of the west Orange County turnpike, which has fallen short of revenue projections since it opened in 1996. Linda Lindholm, also a Laguna Niguel council member, said she will ask the tollway's board of directors Thursday to consider hiring a consultant to evaluate the road's economic problems and possible solutions.

The California state controller's office announced Tuesday that it will review plans by Orange County's largest toll road agency to merge the operations of the financially ailing San Joaquin Hills turnpike and the successful Foothill-Eastern tollway.

Drivers on the San Joaquin Hills toll road through western Orange County could be paying tolls for an extra six years under a proposed agreement that would restructure about $430 million of its $2.1 billion in debt. The agreement is asking bondholders to lower payments for 13 years and restructure the way the agency pays interest on certain bonds. An agreement, which would push back the bond maturity dates by six years, to 2042, is expected in two weeks. "Basically … what we're trying to do is be proactive about the way we manage finances here at the agency," said Tom Margro, chief executive of the Transportation Corridor Agencies, which also operates the Foothill and Eastern toll roads, which includes a portion of the 133 Freeway.

Orange County turnpike officials on Thursday approved a $1.16-billion package of payments and loans to bail out the San Joaquin Hills tollway. The rescue plan by the Transportation Corridor Agencies replaces a failed attempt in 2004 to merge the operations of the Foothill-Eastern and San Joaquin Hills toll roads and refinance them with a $4-billion bond issue. "This is not a full solution," said Laguna Woods Councilman Bert Hack, who chairs the San Joaquin Hills board of directors.

After almost 18 months of secret negotiations, board members of Orange County's toll road system on Thursday unveiled a $1.16-billion package of loans and payments to bail out the financially struggling San Joaquin Hills tollway. The proposed rescue plan by the Transportation Corridor Agencies is an alternative to the failed attempt in May 2004 to merge the operations of the Foothill-Eastern and San Joaquin Hills toll roads and refinance them with a $4-billion bond issue.

An Orange County transportation leader who advanced the use of bond issues and public-private partnerships to finance new highways announced Monday that he will retire as chief executive of the largest toll road system in California. After 15 years with the Irvine-based Transportation Corridor Agencies, Walter D. Kreutzen said he will step down Nov. 1 to pursue other professional endeavors.

Tolls on the financially ailing San Joaquin Hills turnpike in coastal Orange County will increase anywhere from 25 to 50 cents on July 1 -- a rate hike that goes beyond what highway operators had planned for at most of the road's toll plazas. The San Joaquin Hills board of directors voted 13 to 1 on Thursday to approve the rate hikes, which are expected to generate $1.5 million a year in additional revenue for the struggling highway.

I must admit to having felt a little queasy the other day when I heard that a bunch of Orange County politicians had meddled in an important public financing transaction and torpedoed the deal. After all, this is the county that won a permanent place in the Municipal Finance Hall of Shame for losing a couple of billion dollars in an investment debacle almost exactly 10 years ago.

With construction due to begin soon on the San Joaquin Hills tollway, the cost of the 20-year war waged over it now exceeds $2 million and continues to grow. For opponents of the new road, their cost--close to half that total--has been worth it. "We're trying to show people that they don't always have to go along with whatever the developers want in this county," said opponent Judy Davis.

A federal judge today may decide if construction will proceed on the San Joaquin Hills tollway--and if so, where along the 17.5-mile route. A hearing on a preliminary injunction sought by environmentalists opposed to the $1.1-billion project is scheduled for 3 p.m. before U.S. District Judge Linda McLaughlin in Santa Ana. Two weeks ago the same judge ordered a temporary halt in construction pending further rulings in the case, which focuses on the adequacy of the project's environmental reports.

The last of three Wall Street ratings agencies on Tuesday downgraded to junk status $1.9 billion in bonds sold to build the faltering San Joaquin Hills toll road through western Orange County. Moody's Investors Service lowered its rating from Baa3 -- the lowest investment grade -- to Ba2, a non-investment grade. Moody's also announced that it would keep the San Joaquin Hills tollway on its watch list for possible additional downgrades.

Plans to merge the operations of two Orange County toll roads and refinance them with a $4-billion bond issue died Thursday, leaving in doubt the future of one of California's first turnpikes -- a financially ailing route from Newport Beach to San Juan Capistrano.