Countywide : Toll Road Survey Work Permitted

The San Joaquin Hills Transportation Corridor Agency will be allowed to do limited survey work and erosion control on a disputed stretch of tollway that cuts through environmentally sensitive Laguna Canyon and is the subject of a lawsuit in federal court.

Lawyers for a coalition of environmental groups, which sued to stop construction on 4 1/2 miles of tollway between El Toro Road and Newport Coast Drive, approved the limited construction work in an agreement reached with the toll road agency Friday.

The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals halted construction on the 4 1/2-mile stretch in June, when the court issued an injunction to allow tollway opponents additional time to prepare a lawsuit contending that federal officials approved the project illegally.

Environmentalists charge that the Federal Highway Administration violated environmental laws when it approved construction of the toll road.

The agreement reached by both sides last week allows the tollway agency to survey the center line of the road and take measures to identify and protect plants and locate the nests of birds in the area.

In addition, the agency will be permitted to place straw bales and sandbags in previously graded areas. Tollway agency attorney Rob Thornton said the work will not involve further grading or ground disturbance.

Attorney Mike Weinberger, who represents the coalition of environmental groups that filed the lawsuit, said the limited agreement “does not signal an acceptance of the toll road on our part.”

“They will be going in and putting erosion controls in place to ensure that the grading done in a hurry in June does not lead to problems this winter when the rains come,” Weinberger said. “The other activities are mostly in the nature of documenting environmental resources.”