Judge Blocks Work on O.C. Toll Road Project : Construction: The move pleased environmentalists, but transportation officials called two-week delay costly.

A federal judge temporarily blocked construction of the San Joaquin Hills toll road Monday in a move hailed by environmentalists but decried by the agency building the highway as a costly delay.

“This is a very significant decision,” said Joel R. Reynolds, an attorney representing environmental groups opposed to the toll road. “The (temporary restraining order) was the only thing standing in the way of bulldozers destroying the Laguna Canyon greenbelt.”

Construction had been scheduled to begin Saturday, but the Transportation Corridor Agencies postponed work because of Monday’s hearing. U.S. District Judge Linda McLaughlin granted a two-week delay Monday, and construction could be held up even longer if environmentalists prevail at another hearing on Sept. 7.

TCA officials estimate the delay could cost as much as $250,000 a day. But they still believe the road, about 20 years in the making, will be built.

“We’re positive, we’re confident,” TCA attorney Rob Thornton said. “We will prevail on the merits.”

McLaughlin granted the temporary restraining order after attorneys from the National Resources Defense Council challenged the adequacy of environmental impact studies. They asked for an immediate delay on grounds that irreparable harm would be done to the ecosystem before the court could hear their case.

The 17.5-mile, $1.1-billion project would connect the Corona del Mar Freeway in Newport Beach to Interstate 5 in San Juan Capistrano, slicing through wilderness areas as well as newly developed communities such as Aliso Viejo. Under a proposed toll schedule, it would cost $2 to drive the entire route.

McLaughlin instructed TCA attorneys to prepare a plan that would allow for construction to proceed in areas where it would not do irreparable harm to the ecosystem. The environmentalists, however, are seeking to block all construction until a lawsuit can be heard on the merits of the case.

Environmentalist attorneys said permitting some portions of the road to be built ultimately could hurt their efforts to stop the construction through environmentally sensitive areas. Once millions are spent on portions of the road, there would be pressure to finish the project.

While environmentalists won the day Monday, in the long history of litigation over the project, supporters of the tollway have a string of victories.

Attorneys for the National Resources Defense Council have challenged the project’s environmental impact documents in the state courts for years with little success.

In February, 1992, an Orange County Superior Court ruling found that environmental studies of the project were adequate. The ruling was upheld three months later by the state’s 4th District Court of Appeal.

In January, environmentalists took their case to federal court, filing a suit that also challenged the adequacy of the project’s environmental impact statement. When toll road officials announced last week that they planned to begin construction of the highway, attorneys went to court to seek a temporary restraining order to prevent construction.

On Sept. 7, environmentalists will ask for a preliminary injunction that would delay construction until their case is heard. No trial date has been set in the case.

TCA officials contend that environmentalists hope to delay the project until the road becomes too expensive to build.

Craig S. Bloomgarden, an attorney for the environmentalists, said an informal agreement had been reached with TCA attorneys last week to delay construction until Monday’s court hearing. But Bloomgarden said in court that “we learned this morning that some construction has taken place.”

He said about 100 feet of coastal sage had been destroyed where the proposed tollway crosses Laguna Canyon Road.

TCA attorneys said they were unaware of any construction. Lisa Telles, spokeswoman for the transportation agencies, said later Monday that no grading had taken place, but that a bulldozer had been unloaded at the site and wild grass had been cleared to eliminate fire hazards. Had the restraining order been denied, the bulldozer would have been used today, she said.

Telles said the bulldozer would be removed by this morning, in accordance with the judge’s order.

The TCA has done some surveying and taken soil samples along the route, but has performed no heavy construction. However, near Aliso Viejo in the tollway corridor, preliminary grading had been performed by developers before they transferred the land to the tollway agency.