San Joaquin Hills Toll

Your editorial ("Have a Heart--Build a Toll Road Bypass," Jan. 2) concerning the Transportation Corridor Agencies' plan to charge a toll on a portion of Newport Coast Drive when it becomes a part of the San Joaquin Hills Toll Road addresses a problem that is only the tip of the iceberg. Assemblyman Gil Ferguson (R-Newport Beach) and others are rightly upset that this previously free ride will soon begin to cost drivers a dollar or so per round trip. But what your commentary neglects to mention is the reason the TCA so adamantly insists the tolls be assessed: Toll revenues from Newport Coast Drive make up a significant portion of the monies budgeted to support the near-junk-level bonds issued to finance the ill-conceived San Joaquin Hills Toll Road project.

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.

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.

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.

Tollway opponents say they will urge City Council members tonight to deny approval for construction of a bypass to the planned San Joaquin Hills toll road. The proposed route is intended to provide a toll-free bypass to the 1 1/2-mile section of Newport Coast Drive that will become part of the toll road.

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.

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.

The $2 charge on the San Joaquin Hills toll road could drop during weekends and evenings to entice more riders to the road, where traffic is running about 43% behind its anticipated use. A ridership study released this week shows the road will not carry as many cars as was predicted in 1992, when those projections were used to sell $1.4 billion in construction bonds. The bonds were sold anticipating 94,500 a day by April 1997; the road is handling about 54,000 cars daily.

The proposed San Joaquin Hills tollway cleared a major hurdle Thursday when federal transportation officials approved a massive county plan that addresses the environmental effects of the project. Officials from the Orange County Transportation Corridor Agencies said that they conducted an "exhaustive" review of the six-lane road and that they will spend more than $42 million on improvements to protect wetlands, limit noise and address other environmental effects.

Seeking to bolster the prospects that commuters will use the proposed San Joaquin Hills toll road once it is built, county tollway officials are negotiating with Caltrans to create a "no-competition" zone along the route. Traffic improvements currently underway and most projects listed in the county's long-range plans would not be affected.

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.

A second Wall Street financial agency on Monday withdrew its investment ratings for a proposed $3.9-billion bond deal that is designed to keep Orange County's failing San Joaquin Hills toll road out of default.

Seven new proposals for ending the financial troubles of the San Joaquin Hills toll road surfaced Thursday as directors of Orange County's largest turnpike authority continued their 20-month search for ways to prevent the highway from defaulting on its bonds.

A plan to merge the operations of two Orange County toll roads is reasonable and should proceed without delay to save one of the turnpikes from financial collapse, state auditors concluded in a report released Monday. The review by the California controller's office supports a proposal by the Transportation Corridor Agencies to combine the operations of the struggling San Joaquin Hills toll road and the successful Foothill-Eastern tollway.

As leaders of Orange County's largest tollway system consider merging the operations of their two highways, local and state politicians are asking whether the proposed merger is the best way to save the struggling San Joaquin Hills toll road.

Tolls will increase 25 cents and 50 cents on Orange County's largest toll-road network during the morning and evening rush hours. The boards of directors for the Transportation Corridor Agencies on Thursday approved the rate hikes, which go into effect Oct. 5 for the San Joaquin Hills and Foothill-Eastern toll roads. The rate for cash-paying motorists on the San Joaquin Hills road will increase from $3 to $3.50 at the main toll plaza. Tolls for drivers using FasTrak will rise from $2.75 to $3.

After more than a year of planning, the county has unveiled a preliminary design for Laguna Coast Wilderness Park, an expanse of hillsides, canyons and meadows destined to become Orange County's largest park. While its shape is still evolving, planners say a final blueprint for the 12,000 acres bounded by Laguna Beach, Irvine and Newport Beach should be complete by year's end. In the meantime, they are grappling with controversial issues: Where should the parking lots be?

If those jerks have spent $77 million so far on the San Joaquin Hills toll road, it should be renamed the Pork Barrel Parkway. GORDON GLASS Newport Beach

In stark contrast to the ailing San Joaquin Hills toll road in west Orange County, toll revenue for its sister highway will be in line with earnings predicted when the road was refinanced four years ago, new studies show. The updated projections disclosed Wednesday by the Transportation Corridor Agencies indicate that the 35-mile Foothill-Eastern tollway in east Orange County should remain financially sound for decades.

Orange County's largest toll-road network plans to raise rates as much as 50 cents during morning and evening rush-hours in an attempt to improve the operation's financial outlook. Officials of the Transportation Corridor Agencies predicted that the proposed increases would boost revenue for the San Joaquin Hills toll road through southwestern Orange County, which has seen lower-than-expected earnings and downgrades of its bonds.