Toll Lane Project Receives Green Light on Financing : Transportation: Ten-mile route on the Riverside Freeway is expected to handle 30,000-35,000 cars per day.

IRVINE —  A private toll-lane project in the median of the Riverside Freeway on Tuesday became the first private toll road in 50 years to receive private financing. Construction is scheduled to begin early next week.

Gerald S. Pfeffer, managing director of Irvine-based California Private Transportation Co., said the firm gave an immediate go-ahead to its prime contractor, Granite Construction Co., to start building two fully automated toll lanes in each direction.

Pfeffer forecast opening-year traffic on the $125-million project in late 1995 of 30,000 to 35,000 cars per day, mostly during peak hours. Three companies involved in the project and three banks provided the financing.

Tolls are expected to be about $2 each way during peak traffic, with car pools of three or more entitled to free access. The toll lanes will extend for a distance of 10 miles, from the Riverside County line to the Costa Mesa Freeway.

The lanes will be the first test in the United States of so-called congestion road pricing, which is based on the theory that tolls can help regulate traffic flow as well as draw private investment to highway improvements. Pfeffer said the tolls will be adjustable, with the highest fares charged during the periods of heaviest congestion. The average toll is expected to be $1.75.

“At peak hours,” the Riverside Freeway “is already operating beyond what its designed carrying capacity is,” said Pfeffer. “This project will be providing the congestion relief needed. We will provide a quality service to our motorists.”

Motorists who plan to use the lanes will be supplied with transponders that communicate with the toll system’s computers, eliminating the need to stop at a toll booth. Credit card accounts will be set up in advance and debited with each use of the lanes.