2nd Segment of Foothill Tollway to Open Friday : Transportation: Completion of another 4.3 miles puts the road 2 months ahead of schedule and makes some commuters happy. But others say the new tolls are unfair.

The second segment of Orange County’s first toll road will open Friday, two months ahead of schedule, bringing joy to some commuters and complaints from others because of increased toll rates.

The 4.3-mile extension of the Foothill Transportation Corridor south from Portola Parkway to Antonio Parkway will more than double the length of that highway, putting it within closer reach of Mission Viejo, Coto de Caza and Rancho Santa Margarita.

Completion of the $67-million addition will offer residents of these communities an opportunity to shorten commutes to Irvine, Tustin and Santa Ana and avoid the notoriously congested El Toro Y, where the Santa Ana and San Diego freeways meet.

But the greater convenience carries a higher price.

Traveling the entire 7.5 miles of the freeway one-way will cost $1, up from 75 cents.

Mel Mercado, 32, an architect who lives in Rancho Santa Margarita and commutes each morning to his job in Newport Beach, is among those looking forward to the expansion.

Mercado, who began using the Foothill Transportation Corridor when the first 3.2-mile stretch opened in October, 1993, said the corridor already has made a “dramatic difference” in his morning drive.

“I used to take Alicia Parkway to (Interstate 5) and north to the (San Diego Freeway) . . . and the traffic was bumper to bumper,” he recalled. The first leg of toll road, he said, sliced 10 minutes off his trip.

“The new segment will probably save me another five minutes I can spend with the kids,” he said.

But some complain that the tollway system is unfair.

Lisa Telles, spokeswoman for the Transportation Corridor Agencies, which is developing the toll road, said the agency has received complaints from people living in Foothill Ranch that they will be asked to pay 25 cents more to drive the same distance on the tollway after the extension opens.

Helen Ward, the city of Lake Forest’s liaison with the Foothill Ranch Homeowners Assn., said residents of Foothill Ranch and nearby Portola Hills also contend that it is unfair that they will pay the same toll as many residents of Coto de Caza and Rancho Santa Margarita who will travel up to twice as far each day on the toll road.

Adding to the sting, Ward said, Foothill Ranch residents contend they are paying a higher property assessment than other new communities to finance the tollway’s construction.

“Some of us have quietly conducted our own protest by boycotting the road,” she said.

Telles acknowledged that rates charged on the Foothill Corridor are not based entirely on distance traveled but are designed primarily to help finance construction of the corridor. The amount that motorists are charged, she said, depends primarily on what on-ramps and off-ramps they choose to use, as only some of these have toll booths.

A motorist who enters the corridor at Antonio Parkway, the southernmost on-ramp close to Coto de Caza, will pay 25 cents at the on-ramp.

But northbound motorists who choose to enter the corridor at Santa Margarita Parkway or farther south will pay no charge until they exit at Portola Parkway, where the off-ramp fee will be raised Friday afternoon from 50 cents to 75 cents.

Also, those driving south on the corridor Friday afternoon will pay 50 cents to exit the Alton Parkway off-ramp near Foothill Ranch, up from 25 cents, while those who take exits farther south will pay only 25 cents.

The higher rates will go into effect sometime between 2 and 4 p.m. Friday, corridor agency officials said.

Gaddi H. Vasquez, chairman of the Orange County Board of Supervisors, said he was not “totally comfortable” with the toll structure on the corridor. “It is an issue we have reviewed quite extensively,” he said.

But Vasquez and Telles said no changes could be made in the toll rates to cure any inequities because the rates are prescribed in the legal instruments governing the sale of the bonds sold to raise the funds that are financing the corridor’s construction.

“There are really no alternatives,” Vasquez said.

He said commuters living near the corridor must decide individually whether the time saved is worth the toll. If not, he said, they still can choose to use other streets.

Plenty have decided the toll is worthwhile, said Telles, noting that the currently operating stretch of highway handles an average of 10,000 vehicle trips a day, which she said has exceeded projections.

Telles warned that toll rates will continue to be raised during construction of the toll road, which ultimately will stretch 30 miles.

Scott Diehl, chairman of the Foothill/Eastern Transportation Corridor Agency, said that during the latest tollway expansion, the agency offered financial incentives to contractors “to use new techniques and construction scheduling to expedite the tollway construction, this in spite of record rainfall this winter.”

Early completion of this phase of the project, he said, will speed up collection of toll revenues that can be used to repay bondholders.

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Extending the Toll A new 4.3- mile segment of the Foothill Transportation Corridor will open Friday, extending the length of the state’s first modern toll road to 7.5 miles.