Tollway Construction Halted : Transportation: An injunction stops grading in Laguna Canyon on the final leg of the road until a Jan. 5 hearing. Five more protesters are arrested at the work site.

In a dramatic turn of events, a federal judge Friday ordered a halt to the bulldozers that have been clearing a swath through Laguna Canyon for a tollway, work begun just this week after more than a year of legal delays.

The emergency injunction issued by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals accomplished what three days of protests against the San Joaquin Tollway failed to do: stop the bulldozers in the environmentally sensitive canyon.

“It’s very significant because it’s the only thing that stands between continued devastation of the canyon and the possibility the canyon can be preserved,” said Joel R. Reynolds, attorney for two environmental groups that won Friday’s ruling.

The injunction halts grading on the final leg of the 17-mile tollway until Jan. 5, when project opponents go to court to fight a ruling issued Tuesday that allowed the bulldozers to roll. That ruling, by the 9th Circuit Court, dissolved a prior injunction that had banned construction for all but one day over 15 months.

Work immediately resumed Tuesday on a 4.6-mile section between El Toro Road and Newport Coast Drive.

The grading prompted four days of protests during which opponents picketed and chained themselves to bulldozers. Five protesters were arrested Friday afternoon and booked on suspicion of trespassing and resisting arrest, bringing the week’s total to 21 arrests.

Only four days after winning the right to restart the long-stalled project, officials in charge of the road-building job found themselves whipsawed by an abrupt new stoppage.

“I am disappointed,” said William C. Woollett Jr., executive officer for the Orange County Transportation Corridor Agencies. “The San Joaquin Hills Transportation Corridor will create jobs and relieve traffic congestion, two things that are positive for Orange County’s economy. This project is needed now.”

This week, bulldozers already managed to clear oak trees and shrubs from most of the 175 acres of the disputed stretch. The court action put on hold more grading and planned construction next week of abutments for bridges planned over El Toro Road, said Lisa Telles, spokeswoman for the tollway agency. Construction of the entire tollway is to be completed in March, 1997.

The new round of court battles and related delays also is certain to raise the cost of the project. Delays already have added an additional $8.9 million to the original $793-million cost. The tollway agency has paid an additional $2.9 million in court-related legal expenses.

News of the unexpected injunction met with celebratory whoops on Laguna Canyon Road during a candlelight vigil that some said originally felt more like a funeral for their beloved canyon.

“There is a Santa Claus,” said Irvine resident Angelo Vassos, 62, who was arrested with his wife on Wednesday after they tied themselves to a bulldozer. “I certainly wasn’t expecting something like that.”

Said Beth Leeds, whose own separate attempt to stop the grading was rejected in Orange County Superior Court this week: “I knew it would happen. It’s justice . . . The canyon’s going to be saved.”

But the sense of triumph was tempered by anger that bulldozers already had cleared trees and shrubs from more than three-fourths of the 175 acres in just three days.

“The devastation that has been wrought by the bulldozers these last two or three days--it’s just incredible,” said Lida Lenney, a former Laguna Beach mayor who founded the Laguna Canyon Conservancy, a leading group opposing the tollway. “It’s not the same place.”

Reynolds moved to allay fears among allies that irreversible damage already has been done to an area that is a habitat for the threatened California gnatcatcher. He said plant life in the cleared areas can be regenerated.

As 60 people gathered for the dusk vigil, towering spotlights in a field nearby shone on rows of silent earth movers and freshly graded hillsides.

The scene cast a shadow on the group’s newfound hopes.

“You look at this and it’s pretty grim” Vassos said. “We have a reprieve, (but) when you look at what they’ve done, it’s nothing to celebrate.”

“We’re tired and we’re numb,” added Cris Scaglione, 39, of Dana Point. “I think I can enjoy Christmas finally.”