Fast Action on Measure M Projects Vowed

Flush with the prospect of $3 billion in new taxes, transportation officials pledged Wednesday to begin work within three months to ease the traffic crunch on some of Orange County’s most maddening stretches of highway.

Passage of Measure M, the half-cent sales tax, could give a quick injection of cash to half a dozen projects throughout the county, including the notorious El Toro “Y,” commuter trains and car-pool lanes on the Orange Freeway.

Even though the sales tax does not take effect until April, the measure could allow the county to borrow money quickly enough to begin construction of car-pool lanes on the Orange Freeway within 90 days, transportation officials said. Major improvements to Beach Boulevard could also be initiated within the next three months.

Within 18 months Orange County’s frazzled motorists can expect to have more commuter trains to escape the traffic-choked Santa Ana Freeway. Remodeling of Orange County’s worst freeway bottleneck--the El Toro Y, the confluence of the San Diego and Santa Ana freeways--could also begin within the next year and a half.

“The hard part has just begun,” Orange County Transportation Commission Chairman Dana W. Reed said at a news conference Wednesday. “We have to deliver on our promises to the voters.”

Reed has scheduled a special meeting of the commission Friday to discuss project priorities. He said the commissioners will vote on hiring a financial consulting firm for advice on how to borrow against future tax revenue in order to advance the projects. Reed said he was confident such borrowing is possible because many projects in the county, including the new John Wayne Airport terminal, were financed that way.

The tax, which takes effect April 1, is expected to raise $3.1 billion over 20 years at an annual cost of $50 to $75 per person. But voter approval also makes the county eligible for a bonanza by the turn of the century: $400 million in state and federal matching funds, including nearly $80 million in money from state rail bonds approved by voters last June.

The matching funds will be used to pay for increased commuter rail service between Los Angeles and cities in Orange County, and, possibly in a few years, rail service between Riverside and Irvine.

Measure M also provides $14 million for the purchase--perhaps within six months--of the old Pacific Electric (Red Car) right of way between Stanton and Norwalk. When combined with a stretch of former Pacific Electric right of way in Garden Grove and Santa Ana already owned by the Orange County Transit District, this purchase will close the final gap in a planned light rail link to the Long Beach-Los Angeles Blue Line and a light rail line slated to occupy the Century Freeway median to Los Angeles International Airport.

Bruce Nestande, vice chairman of the state transportation commission, said the projects that have first call on the money are those ready for construction. That means preliminary design work and environmental review must be completed or close to completion.

The hallmark of Orange County Transportation Commission Executive Director Stanley T. Oftelie’s administration has been the advance preparation of mandatory environmental studies and design work so that projects can be built as soon as construction funds become available.

Oftelie’s policy often came under fire from groups such as Drivers for Highway Safety, who accused Oftelie of hiring dozens of consulting and engineering firms to do work on projects for which there was no real timetable.

But Oftelie said Wednesday that the commission’s gamble paid off. The Orange Freeway car-pool lanes and the El Toro Y projects will be advanced by at least a year because all the necessary reports were prepared ahead of time.

During the last two years, the commission also prepared plans for installation of car-pool lanes on the Riverside Freeway, even though no construction money was available. Recently, however, the state agreed to supply construction funds to the project in 1996, and a private consortium is proposing to build a 10-mile segment with two new toll lanes in each direction. With passage of Measure M, officials said Wednesday, the Transporation Commission may be able to advance construction of the remaining stretches by four or five years, and seek repayment from the state later.

State and regional officials welcomed Orange County’s new attitude toward transportation funding. Until now, Orange County had been the only urban county in the state without a transportation-related tax, and consequently, state officials took a dim view of Orange County’s requests for money and legislation authorizing special projects.

“In my view, the Measure M contest was one of the most important elections in the state” on Tuesday, said William Leonard of San Bernardino, chairman of the California Transportation Commission. “For one thing, it resolves a major problem we were facing. . . . It now ensures that projects in neighboring counties (all of which have adopted half-cent sales taxes for transportation) won’t come to a halt at the Orange County line.”

But officials also cautioned that many of the projects in Measure M require years of lead time, such as the widening of Interstate 5 from the El Toro Y south to San Clemente, a project for which no state funds are committed. As a result, officials said, commuters should not expect traffic miracles to appear overnight.

Politics is inevitably involved in setting priorities for individual projects. Although the County Transportation Commission is setting the priorities now, it will merge next year with County Transit District under a new, 11-member board of directors. Power is expected to shift from county officials, who have the upper hand at the commission, to the cities, which are lobbying hard for funds to improve major streets and begin work on proposed monorail and people-mover systems.

Measure M sets up a Citizens Oversight Committee to ensure that the sales tax proceeds are spent according to the plan approved by voters. But its sole authority is to make findings after money is allocated, and thus the nine-member panel will have no role in assigning priorities now.

Nominees were preselected by the Orange County Grand Jurors Assn., and a lottery to select the eight citizens who will join County Auditor-Controller Steven E. Lewis on the panel will be held at the County Transportation Commission’s Nov. 15 meeting.

THE MEASURE M WINDFALL With Measure M’s victory at the polls Tuesday, more than $3 billion will go to finance a variety of transportation projects in Orange County during the next 20 years. Money from the half-cent sales tax will combine with state and federal funds to widen freeways, buy rail lines and repave streets. But these six projects are expected to be tackled first: A. Old Pacific-Electric Line: This abandoned railway right of way to be purchased as early as February for new public commuter rail service between Orange County and Los Angeles’ Blue Line. B. Beach Boulevard: Construction could begin in February to make this busy thoroughfare a so-called “SuperStreet,” with turn pockets, better signals and other improvements. C. Orange Freeway (57): One car-pool lane to be added in each direction between Santa Ana Freeway (5) north to the county line. Work could begin by February. D. Santa Ana Freeway: Purchase of right of way to be speeded to allow widening of the Santa Ana north of the Garden Grove Freeway (22) to the Riverside Freeway (91). E. El Toro Y: Confluence of Santa Ana and San Diego (405) freeways to be rebuilt to ease the daily traffic crunch. Work could begin within 18 months. F. Commuter rail: New locomotives and rail cars for more daily commuter trains to Los Angeles to be purchased in about 18 months. Acquisitions hinge on pending public purchase of Santa Fe rail line. AND THE REST: Measure M will a plethora of other projects during the coming decades. They include: FREEWAYS--$1.3 BILLION Building two car-pool lanes and one regular lane each way on the Santa Ana Freeway between the El Toro Y and San Gabriel River Freeway (605) in Los Angeles County. Measure M means the project, already under way, should take 10 years instead of 20 or more. Adding one car-pool lane each way to the Riverside Freeway from the Los Angeles County line to the Costa Mesa Freeway (55). The project is expected to begin within next five years. Adding one car-pool lane each way on Interstate 5 south of the El Toro Y to San Clemente. No firm starting date, but construction is expected to be under way within 10 years. Adding a general-purpose lane each way on the Costa Mesa Freeway from the Santa Ana Freeway to the Riverside Freeway. Construction is expected to start later this decade. STREETS--$1 BILLION Building 21 “Super Streets” over the next two decades. Aside from Beach Boulevard, Moulton Parkway in South County, Katella Avenue and Imperial Highway are early candidates. Improving 100 intersections scattered around the county in the next decade. Better coordination of traffic signals throughout the county, with much of the work expected to begin in the next few years. Constructing large arterial roads planned by the county during the next 20 years. Repairing and maintaining streets in cities and county territory. Work is to be performed throughout the next 20 years. TRANSIT--$775 MILLION Expanding commuter rail service between Orange County and Los Angeles, helping buy rights of way along the Los Angeles-to-San-Diego corridor and building new commuter stations in Mission Viejo, northern Irvine and Buena Park, plus rehabilitating others. Helping build a new urban rail system or monorail being studied for central Orange County. Establishing commuter rail with Riverside County, possibly later this decade. Helping pay for subsidized fares for senior citizens and the disabled on buses and rail lines. Building park-and-ride lots and helping finance special interchanges between freeways for buses and car pools.