Caltrans’ Games Won’t Work

So Laguna Beach won’t play along with Caltrans’ little game of trying to railroad a toll road down our throats, will we? What does Caltrans do now?

They have just finished converting an outbound lane on Laguna Canyon Road to a “Right Turn Only” lane at the El Toro intersection. That has effectively cut the outbound flow in half.

Laguna Canyon Road is State Highway 133. It has been there a lot longer than any community in the area. Now Caltrans has decided to restrict the flow on it when the demand is higher than ever before. State Highway 133 is one of only three arterials into and out of town.

Caltrans did a fine job repaving the 133 from El Toro Road into town this winter. It only took them four months to resurface less than 3 miles of a two-lane road.

Now they’ve figured out a way to maintain their aggravating presence. I can almost hear their back-room conversations echoing from the canyon walls. “Let’s restrict the number of lanes out of Laguna from two lanes to one. Let’s also reset the signals to lessen the ‘green light’ time while we’re at it. Ha! That’ll really get them itching for a toll road or two!”

Caltrans says it will take them how long to build a toll road, and the reasons aren’t to support more development? Can we even come close to believing the environmental impact report? The Environmental Protection Agency doesn’t and neither do the environmentally conscious people who live here.

BOB HEITEL, Laguna Beach