County Considers Making New Freeway a Feeway

Charging motorists 8 to 10 cents a mile to use the proposed new Eastern Freeway--about $1 for an average trip--would come close to paying for the $198.4-million facility that could become Orange County’s first toll road, according to a financial analysis released Wednesday.

But the study, a preliminary look at the potential for asking motorists to pay directly for new freeways, found that tolls on the nearby Foothill Freeway, another proposed new route, would be less feasible. Motorists would be more likely to queue up on the nearby Santa Ana Freeway--traffic jams and all--rather than pay a toll, the study concluded.

The analysis, prepared by a consultant for the Orange County Transportation Commission, said it is too early to endorse toll road financing because too much about the route of the freeway and the amount of traffic it will carry is still unknown. However, the preliminary numbers show it could provide a way to finance at least one of the county’s new freeways.

Tolls on the Eastern Freeway, combined with revenue from fees assessed on new development near the roads, could provide enough income to finance the yearly bond payments on the Eastern Freeway, or fall only about $7 million short, the study said.

Running 13 miles through the foothills of eastern Orange County, the Eastern Freeway would link the Riverside and the Santa Ana freeways on a route roughly parallel to the heavily congested Costa Mesa Freeway. Traffic planners project heavy use of the freeway from new development in east Tustin and east Orange and from workers driving in from Riverside County to Irvine-area industrial complexes.

Overall, tolls could be expected to cover about 39% of the debt on the freeway when it opens in the mid-1990s, and 62% of the debt when anticipated future development is in place, the study said. Development fees are expected to raise about $341 million for the Foothill and Eastern freeways, or about half their anticipated costs.

“With the history of success of toll roads in the East, it would seem that we would be rather remiss to decide that we should defy what the experience was in other places. My feeling is we should have them, and they will be considered,” said James Roosevelt, chairman of the Transportation Commission.

The commission is scheduled to receive the toll road financing study today, and then turn over the results to a joint group of city and county officials, who will determine the size, route and financing plan for the Foothill and Eastern freeways.

However, the study did not examine toll road financing for the third proposed new corridor, the San Joaquin Hills Freeway in the southwestern part of the county.

In other findings, the report concluded that the Foothill Freeway would compete for travelers with the parallel Santa Ana Freeway. Planned improvements could make the Santa Ana route more attractive to motorists who don’t want to pay tolls.

Still, if both freeways were made toll roads, the county would be about $26 million to $37 million a year short in paying off bonds for the freeways, the report found.

The Senate Transportation Committee last week killed a bill by Assemblyman Nolan Frizzelle (R-Huntington Beach) that would have authorized toll road financing in Orange County. But county officials, who did not support several provisions of Frizzelle’s bill, said they will sponsor new legislation later if they decide to pursue the toll road concept.

Some county officials have expressed concern over the idea of restricting California’s historic freeways to paying motorists, particularly when many of the motorists who will use the Eastern Freeway will have already paid for it indirectly through fees on the new homes they buy.

But Roosevelt said county officials have to look at every option available as state and federal highway funds become more and more scarce.

“I think basically it’s an innovative, good idea, but the time isn’t ripe yet to reach a definitive solution as to the place it should go or how,” he said.