Officials Cheer Prop. 111 Victory : Transit: Voter approval of the gasoline tax hike ensures completion of numerous highway and rail projects. It is being viewed by some as the dawning of a new age for harried commuters.

The passage of a statewide gasoline tax hike was viewed Wednesday as heralding a new dawn for transportation in Orange County that will see expanded rail service and more highway lanes built on the Santa Ana Freeway, possibly within the next two years, officials said.

“I’m elated,” declared Supervisor Thomas F. Riley, chairman of the Orange County Transportation Commission.

“People think that we have to do something different and change the way people have been moving around the state,” added James P. Reichert, general manager of the Orange County Transit District, the county’s bus agency.

Statewide approval of Proposition 111, along with two other transit measures--Propositions 108 and 116--guarantees that at least $18.5 billion in new money will be available for highway and transit construction over the next 10 years.

“This is a major turnaround,” Caltrans Director Robert K. Best declared at a press conference in Sacramento. “This will require us to gear up and we will be gearing up quickly . . . so the people who have expressed their trust in government (by voting for the measures) will be seeing projects out on the road.”

Best said Caltrans will ask the California Transportation Commission to approve $257 million in backlogged projects when the commission meets in Sacramento next week. He said construction on some of these stalled projects could begin within three months.

The Caltrans director also said that passage of the 9-cent-per-gallon tax hike assured timely completion of the Century Freeway and Harbor Transitway projects in Los Angeles.

Not only does passage of Proposition 111 mean more than $1 billion over 10 years for projects such as the widening of the Santa Ana Freeway, it also may have signaled at least a temporary shift in local voter sentiment, county officials said.

Although the ballot measure failed to carry in Orange County, with 51.6% of local voters opposed and 48.4% in favor, county officials insist that a higher turnout would have yielded a local victory.

The ballot results are undergoing close scrutiny because many county officials want to place a countywide, half-cent sales tax hike--Measure M--for transportation projects on the November ballot. Opinions are mixed, however, about whether it would pass on the heels of Proposition 111. Orange County voters defeated the half-cent tax proposal last year.

“It’s a winning streak--one in a row!” said OCTC Executive Director Stanley T. Oftelie. “Proposition 111 lost by a hair’s breadth here, and as bond measures have lost in Orange County, you could say this one lost only slightly. The outcome is favorable for placing Measure M on the ballot because this shows that Orange County voters want to invest in transportation.”

Riley agreed, but Supervisor Roger R. Stanton said he remains unconvinced. “People are going to say, ‘Wait a minute, didn’t we just do something for transportation?’ ” he said.

Measure M would provide about $3.1 billion over a 20-year period for highway and transit improvements. The money would supplement Caltrans funding for some projects, such as the Santa Ana Freeway widening, and it would fund some traffic improvements for which state funding is not expected, such as widening the Riverside Freeway and remodeling the confluence of the San Diego and Santa Ana freeways in Irvine, now a commuter’s nightmare.

OCTD’s Reichert said Measure M should go forward if only because it will provide local matching funds to attract state and federal grants.

Meanwhile, officials said they were amazed that Proposition 108, the rail bond measure, carried in this conservative county by 51% to 49%. They attributed its success to the increasing popularity of trains and a concern about air pollution.

Riley suggested that people are “making decisions to have their neighbors ride the trains.”

Proposition 116, a separate commuter rail bond measure, narrowly lost in Orange County, 51.5% to 48.5%. The measure provides $125 million for an Irvine monorail that was strongly supported by Irvine Mayor Larry Agran. Agran was upset in Tuesday’s balloting, as was his council majority. But the victor in the mayor’s race, Sally Anne Sheridan, said she will support the monorail project despite her concerns about the high density development it may bring to the Irvine Business Center.

OCTC’s Oftelie said that if Irvine doesn’t come up with the $125 million in matching funds needed for the proposed five-mile loop, it is possible that other Orange County cities that have banded together to form a monorail consortium will seek state legislation to obtain the funds.

Oftelie said that between the rail bond measures adopted Tuesday, millions of dollars will be available for rail projects locally, including $27 million for the proposed Riverside-to-Orange County commuter rail line and the planned purchase of the Amtrak rail line between Los Angeles and Orange County.

Proposition 111 proceeds, meanwhile, are expected to help fund the completion of the Santa Ana-Costa Mesa Freeway interchange, the widening of the Santa Ana Freeway between the Costa Mesa and Garden Grove freeways, and the widening of the Costa Mesa Freeway north of the Santa Ana Freeway.

These projects will keep plans for a $200-million transitway on schedule. The transitway, a special ramp system reserved for buses and car pools, is part of the Santa Ana Freeway widening project.

Generally the three ballot measures make the county eligible to receive:

$348 million for projects that Caltrans had to stop because money ran out, such as the Santa Ana-Costa Mesa Freeway interchange reconstruction.

$370 million for previously approved projects that had not yet been allocated any money.

$317 million for local road improvements, traffic systems management programs, and major, interregional highways.

$149 million for Amtrak corridor improvements and Orange County’s own commuter rail service.

$244 million for a “demonstration” Irvine monorail project, Amtrak improvements, a Riverside-to-Orange County commuter rail service, and $10 million for locomotives and rail cars.