Foothill Tollway Panel Unveils Proposed Fees : Transportation: Autos, motorcycles would pay the lowest tolls, big trucks the most. The first 3 1/2-mile stretch of the 30-mile corridor opens in October.

Automobile and motorcycle drivers should pay $1 for a trip along the first 7.8 miles of the Foothill toll road in south Orange County, a committee of the Orange County Transportation Corridor Agencies recommended Thursday.

The toll plan to help raise $745.9 million to build the state’s first public toll road, which will serve the area’s developing foothill communities, goes to the agencies’ board of directors for final action next week.

Under the plan approved Thursday by the agencies’ Budget and Finance Committee, drivers of automobiles and motorcyclists would pay $1 to travel 7.8 miles from the primarily residential community of Rancho Santa Margarita to employment hubs in Irvine and the central county.

Toll rates would be higher for drivers of larger vehicles, up to $3.30 for a truck with six or more axles.

The first 3 1/2 miles of the 30-mile toll road are under construction and scheduled to open in October. To travel that stretch, which will link Portola Parkway in Lake Forest with Portola Parkway in Irvine, the committee recommended that automobile drivers be required to pay 50 cents each way, compared to $1.80 for drivers of the largest trucks. Those who enter the highway at Alton Parkway, about the halfway point, will get a 50% discount.

Unlike motorists on older toll roads in the East, those who use the Foothill Corridor will pay at automated collection machines at on-ramps and off-ramps to avoid slowing traffic on the highway.

Agency spokesman Mike Stockstill said regular Foothill corridor commuters will have the option of maintaining a prepaid account so they won’t have to stop at toll machines. Instead, they will keep a card on their dashboard with a transponder that will trigger a charge to their account each time they pass a toll booth.

Transportation officials expect that people choosing to pay the toll during peak traffic hours as an alternative to congested Interstate 5 will enable the agency to raise $800,000 in the first full year of operation.

Motorists will have an added incentive to avoid Interstate 5 when construction begins to expand the notoriously congested El Toro Y, which will be in full swing when the Foothill corridor opens, Stockstill said.

Lengthening the Foothill corridor another 4.3 miles to Antonio Parkway is scheduled for completion in the summer of 1995.

Stockstill said the agency hasn’t yet approved tolls for the entire length of the Foothill corridor, which ultimately is planned to extend 30 miles from San Clemente to Irvine. But he said the average toll may be about 15 cents a mile in today’s dollars--or $4.50 to travel the entire road.

Toll revenue from motorists, transportation officials said, is expected to finance about half the construction cost of the Foothill corridor, with the remainder funded by development fees.

The Foothill corridor is one of three public toll roads planned in Orange County. All of them, including the San Joaquin Hills corridor and Eastern corridor, are expected to be completed or under construction by the year 2000.

Taking a Toll The Foothill Transportation Corridor will be Orange County’s first public toll highway. Here are the recommended charges for various vehicles traveling one way the first 3.5-mile segment of the road, which opens in October.

Vehicle Toll Six-axle or greater combination truck $1.80 Five-axle combination truck 1.50 Four-axle combination truck 1.20 Any car, motorcycle, or two-axle, .75 four-tire truck with a trailer Automobile .50 Any two-axle, four-tire truck .50 Motorcycle .50 Two-axle bus .60 Two-axle, six-tire truck .60

Source: Transportation Corridor Agencies