Clearing of Tollway Land Halted : Courts: Judge’s ruling temporarily blocks work in Laguna Canyon, the site of staunch protests by environmentalists.

A federal judge issued a temporary injunction Wednesday that halted bulldozers in Laguna Canyon amid a second day of protests by environmentalists seeking to stop construction on a 10-lane highway through the bucolic canyon.

The order came after one environmental activist chained himself to a bulldozer and another was arrested in a demonstration that snarled morning rush-hour traffic on narrow Laguna Canyon Road.

The temporary stay by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals was the latest round in a legal battle by environmentalists trying to prevent the toll road’s construction through Laguna Canyon between Newport Coast Drive and El Toro Road.

On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Linda H. McLaughlin rejected the lawsuit that Laguna Greenbelt and other environmentalists had filed against the San Joaquin Hills Transportation Corridor Agency and the Federal Highway Administration. The suit charged that federal environmental laws had been violated when the toll road project was approved.

McLaughlin’s ruling allowed work to begin on the 4.6 miles of roadway that cuts through the canyon as part of a 17-mile tollway that will extend from Newport Beach to San Juan Capistrano.

The lower court’s decision set off a mad scramble as bulldozers immediately began clearing the land and attorneys for the environmentalists rushed to file an appeal. Meanwhile, protesters gathered at the canyon Tuesday and Wednesday--some camping out along Laguna Canyon Road on Tuesday night “to keep an eye on things,” one protester said.

On Wednesday, when news reached the protesters that the higher court had ordered the temporary halt to construction, about two dozen demonstrators cheered wildly and ran up to the hillside where the bulldozers were perched.

“Stop them or we will. We got a restraining order,” the environmentalists shouted to police officers who were posted at the site.

The demonstration stalled traffic going through the narrow, winding canyon for about 20 minutes earlier in the day.

The temporary injunction issued Wednesday is expected to be in force for only a few days while the judicial panel considers the environmentalists’ emergency move to get an injunction pending an appeal of McLaughlin’s ruling.

A final ruling on the appeal of the lower court’s ruling is expected to take several months.

The injunction “is a small step, but from our perspective, it’s an essential step,” said Joel R. Reynolds, senior staff attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council, which is handling the lawsuit for the environmentalists. “If the court does not issue this order, the bulldozers could destroy this area in a matter of days.”

Reynolds bristled at the speed with which the corridor agency sent the bulldozers to work after the district court’s decision.

“It’s a total and complete outrage for a public agency to be acting in this fashion; for them to so quickly destroy valuable habitat in the midst of Laguna Canyon knowing that we were going to be asking for an injunction,” Reynolds said. “You expect that from private developers, not from a public agency.”

“I’ve dreaded this day for years,” protester Mark Sanderson said. “It’s too late now. This was a pipe dream to think you could stop the gears of progress.”

Ross Martin, a 23-year-old Corona del Mar resident and member of the activist Earth First! group, sat alongside Laguna Canyon Road holding a sign made from a pizza box that read: “Say Goodby to the Canyon.”

Mike Stockstill, spokesman for the tollway agency, said work began immediately because the agency is nine months behind schedule because of delays caused by the litigation.

“We have been delayed for nine months, and the public is ultimately going to pay the cost of the millions of dollars in delays caused by Mr. Reynolds and the plaintiffs in this case,” Stockstill said. “There was no legal constraint to beginning work.”