150 March in Peaceful Protest of Tollway Plan : Demonstration: Although the way has been virtually cleared for the San Joaquin Hills project, those who oppose it vow to fight on.

Although their efforts could prove only symbolic, about 150 people marched more than a mile Sunday to protest the imminent construction of the San Joaquin Hills tollway.

Environmentalists opposed to the project, which will destroy some prime nesting grounds for the California gnatcatcher, were handed a serious setback on Feb. 27, when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service ruled the $1.1-billion road poses no major threat of extinction to the tiny songbird.

Last week, more than $1 billion in tax-exempt bonds were sold on the market to finance the construction, virtually clearing the way for work scheduled to begin in April or May.

Even so, the demonstrators said, their fight is not over and they plan to encourage more peaceful protests such as Sunday’s march, which wound through a residential neighborhood to a vantage point overlooking part of the tollway site.

“We’re doing this so the children could see what the land looks like in its natural state,” said Chris Hegge, who organized the protest, attended mostly by women and their children. The demonstration was scheduled to coincide with International Women’s Day.

“I’m here because I’m concerned that we’re giving our children freeways to work on instead of pristine, beautiful canyons . . . that they can enjoy as they get older,” said Anne-Marie Casavant-Chaney, 31, of Laguna Beach, who came with her husband and their 9-year-old son.

With the environmental approval to build the road and the financing assured, tollway officials have said that the only remaining obstacles are several lawsuits by environmentalists. They have also said that the lawsuits will more likely delay than halt the 17.5-mile tollway, planned since the mid-1970s.

The road would link the Corona del Mar Freeway near John Wayne Airport to Interstate 5, cutting across Laguna Canyon in the process. Tolls are expected to be $2 per trip, each way, on the full length of the road, with cheaper rates for shorter trips.

County road builders say the tollway is necessary to relieve snarled traffic on nearby freeways. Opponents, however, disagree and argue that the road would invite more development and more commuters and cause more pollution.

“Obviously, we need to build houses and we need to build roads, but we don’t have to build over undeveloped lands,” said Renee Kogel, 60, of Laguna Beach.

Officials with the Orange County Transportation Corridor Agencies, which is overseeing the project, could not be reached for comment concerning the protest.

The demonstration lasted about two hours and was relatively uneventful but for a brief interruption by two security guards, who ordered demonstrators to leave their starting place at Brookline Park.

The guards, who said they were hired by the Aliso Viejo Community Assn., said the demonstrators were trespassing on private property.

Undeterred, the protesters finished their opening speeches before leaving the park for the 35-minute walk to the corner of Lindengrove and Briarcliff. There, they were greeted by locked steel gates keeping them from getting closer to the graded area of the road.