Federal Judge Cancels Tollway Hearing : Roads: The issue of giving San Joaquin Hills agency officials immediate access to area burned in Laguna fire is put over until an already scheduled Jan. 24 court session.

A federal judge has declined to speed up construction of the San Joaquin Hills toll road.

U.S. District Judge Linda McLaughlin canceled a hearing scheduled for Monday that was sought by the San Joaquin Hills Transportation Corridor Agency. In recent weeks, corridor officials had filed briefs asking that construction crews be allowed immediate access to the Laguna Greenbelt area burned in the recent fire.

Tollway lawyers argued there was no longer any need for the court order barring construction to protect the greenbelt area because the recent fire had destroyed the natural habitat and it is no longer home to the California gnatcatcher, a rare, threatened songbird.

The tollway attorneys also argued that some catch basins to be built in the greenbelt area as part of the $1.1-billion highway project would help alleviate winter flooding.

But McLaughlin on Wednesday ordered the issue put over until an already scheduled court session Jan. 24. That is when McLaughlin is scheduled to hear final arguments and may rule on the adequacy of the entire 17.5-mile project’s environmental impact studies.

The judge’s decision not to grant the immediate access sought by the tollway agency is a victory for environmentalists, said Joel Reynolds, attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council, which represents several environmental groups in the court case.

However, the judge postponed until Jan. 24 the NRDC’s request for financial sanctions against the tollway agency for filing the allegedly superfluous bid for immediate access.

Tollway officials declined to describe the delay as a defeat, saying they look forward to the January hearing.

Already partly under construction, the toll road would connect the Corona del Mar Freeway near John Wayne Airport with Interstate 5 near San Juan Capistrano.