COUNTYWIDE : Potential Tollway Users to Be Surveyed

Worried that toll revenue may be insufficient to build two planned tollways at their fully designed width, the agency overseeing the projects will ask congestion-weary motorists how much they are willing to pay to use them. The Foothill/Eastern Transportation Corridor Agency voted Thursday to conduct the new survey after a study by Wilbur Smith Associates showed that ridership will drop if tolls on the two new highways exceed $1.50.

Tolls of about $1 had been envisioned by transportation planners for both the Eastern and Foothill tollways. Construction of the projects is scheduled to begin in 1991.

However, projected revenue from anticipated traffic volumes on both highways are about 30% below what is needed to pay for building both toll projects as they currently are designed, Loretta Sanchez, a financial analyst with Irvine-based Fieldman & Rolapp, said Friday. The firm has been hired by the tollway agencies to monitor the financial viability of the Eastern, Foothill and San Joaquin Hills tollway projects.

“We’ve said for quite awhile now that there needs to be a better look at revenues versus the cost of the projects,” Sanchez said. “The numbers don’t work right now. The engineers are looking at reducing the scope of the projects, which probably means that you would build all of the (roads) but downsize them to begin with.”

Sanchez said the problem is not that there won’t be sufficient funds to build the tollways, but that big construction bills arrive before toll revenues accumulate sufficiently to pay off the bonds that must be sold to help finance the projects.

San Juan Capistrano Mayor Gary L. Hausdorfer, chairman of the Foothill/Eastern board, said targets of the new survey will be commuters from Riverside and San Bernardino counties who work in the Irvine area. He hopes the survey will show that such drivers are willing to pay $2 or $3 to use the tollways as an alternative to the already jammed Riverside, Costa Mesa and Santa Ana freeways.

Previous studies have not included those commuters, focusing instead on the travel behavior of Orange County residents along Interstate 5 and the San Diego Freeway.

“We don’t really know what . . . level of frustration would cause (people) to pay to move more quickly around Southern California or Orange County,” Hausdorfer said.

No firm has been selected yet to conduct a new study.

The Eastern tollway would connect with the Riverside Freeway at Weir Canyon and run to the Santa Ana Freeway in Irvine. The Foothill tollway would extend from the Eastern tollway near Irvine Lake through Rancho Santa Margarita to Interstate 5 near San Clemente.

The San Joaquin Hills tollway, which is expected to have tolls of $1 to $1.25, would extend from the John Wayne Airport area to San Juan Capistrano through Laguna Hills.

The three projects are expected to cost at least $2 billion, with 48.5% paid by developer fees and the rest by toll revenue, state and federal funds.