State Help in Financing New Turnpike Studied

The state would loan either money or its credit rating to an Orange County transportation agency to build the planned $380-million San Joaquin Hills turnpike under proposals now under consideration by the California Transportation Commission.

Such financing proposals, if adopted, could help the San Joaquin Hills Transportation Corridor Agency build the 14-mile highway in its ultimate eight-lane width by 1992 instead of four lanes as originally planned, said former Supervisor Bruce Nestande, a member and former chairman of the state commission.

Meeting in San Rafael on Friday, the nine-member panel listened to an hourlong presentation by Orange County officials about the planned toll facility.

Impressed by the toll road concept, Nestande said, the commission asked its staff to investigate the feasibility of loaning state money to ease any funding shortfall for the project and of allowing the Transportation Corridor Agency to use the state’s credit rating to obtain bond financing. Tolls collected from motorists would be used to repay the bonds or state loan, he said.

The TCA is a joint-powers organization set up by the county and several cities along the route of the planned turnpike in the hills parallel to the San Diego Freeway between Newport Beach and San Juan Capistrano.

Although the project has been designated a state highway, until now state officials have been unenthusiastic about using state resources to build it.

Recently, the commission reluctantly earmarked $35 million for the planned interchange of the new highway and the San Diego Freeway in San Juan Capistrano.

‘Complete Turnaround’

“This is a complete turnaround,” Nestande said. “Now my fellow commissioners see that this is a good project, and they want to do what they can to help.”

Nestande said the commission staff was asked to report back in 30 days about the feasibility of the financing proposals.

Currently, about half the cost of the San Joaquin Hills project is to be financed by fees collected from developers. The rest of the financing is expected to come from toll revenues and federal matching funds.

Bond-Sale Problems

TCA officials had hoped to speed construction by selling bonds. But major financial institutions so far have been unwilling to commit themselves to underwriting the bonds because the agency lacks a credit history and because of concerns that the countywide slow-growth initiative might cause construction cutbacks and reduce developers’ fees.

Nestande said commissioners believe it would be cheaper to build the new highway all at once because inflation would drive up the cost of expanding it to eight lanes later. Also, he said, statistics showed that eight lanes would be filled with traffic within a few years of construction.