Toll Road Start-Up Set Back 3 Years by Review Delays

Orange County toll road officials said Wednesday that delays in the environmental review process have pushed the start date for construction of the controversial Foothill South toll road back at least three years.

Officials had hoped to break ground on the road by 2001 and have drivers on the road and paying tolls in 2003.

The 16-mile road would connect Oso Parkway with Interstate 5 in South County at a cost of at least $644 million, slicing through some of the last open space in the county. The timetable released Wednesday shows construction unlikely to begin until late 2003, news welcomed by an environmental community that has vowed to fight the road to the end.

“It’s the latest in a string of setbacks” for the toll road agency, said Andrew Wetzler, an attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council, a group that unsuccessfully fought to block the San Joaquin Hills toll road. “Time is not on their side.”

But toll road officials say the delays reflect a still sluggish environmental review process they believed had been streamlined under new federal legislation. For example, the “purpose and need statement” for the road, which needed joint approval from three federal agencies, took 28 months to acquire rather than the six months staff had estimated.

“This is a delay and nothing more,” said Mission Viejo Councilwoman Susan Withrow, who chairs the Foothill/Eastern board of the Transportation Corridor Agencies. “In some ways I think it may work in our favor, since congestion on the I-5 will only get worse and people will only see a bigger need for the road.”

Withrow and other board members at a committee meeting Wednesday asked TCA staff to find a way to get the public involved in the process by early next year. The public outreach is designed in part to counter a campaign by environmentalists opposed to the road.

The battle over the final segment in the planned 67-mile county toll road system promises to be the most ferocious yet. The Sierra Club has made blocking the road one of the environmental advocacy group’s national priorities.

The road was also targeted by legislation introduced this year by state Sen. Tom Hayden (D-Los Angeles) to bar road construction in state parks. The bill was not voted on by the full Legislature before it adjourned but can be considered again next session.

The alignment preferred by toll road officials splits the narrow San Onofre State Beach’s inland section, land currently leased from the federal government.

Toll road officials have said the road is a key element in plans to address future congestion.