El Toro Road Alternates Put New Twist on Commuting : Travel: The collapse of a detour around already closed route has drivers buzzing angrily. Even marketing takes its toll.

Grumbling South County motorists Thursday found themselves paying a toll to get to the market or being forced to travel over twisting alternate routes in order to cope with the collapse of a detour around already closed El Toro Road.

Many of the 4,000 residents in Portola Hills, a remote suburb wedged between Lake Forest and Mission Viejo, live just north of El Toro Road and depend on the bypass to commute to work or merely pick up their laundry.

El Toro Road, a major thoroughfare for about 20,000 drivers daily, was closed March 11 after heavy rains earlier this year caused landslides that damaged the road. An adjacent detour was built on earth that slid down the hillside as workers repaired the main road.

Wednesday night’s slide caused a 100-foot section of the bypass road to sink between Marguerite Parkway and Glen Ranch Road.

“We knew the bypass was on sliding planes, but we had to build it quickly to keep traffic flowing,” Mission Viejo City Engineer Loren Anderson said. “Otherwise, El Toro would be closed for a long time” without a detour.

Disgruntled local residents now are limited to twisting alternate routes.

“I’m totally furious,” said Bridgette Murphy, a Portola Hills resident who lives just north of the El Toro bypass. “I can’t even get to the Ralphs that’s just three miles away, but it’s on the other side of El Toro.”

Instead, Murphy, 30, had to travel about 20 minutes to a store seven miles away for groceries.

Neighbor Renee Allen, rushing to make it to the airport on time, said: “Even for simple errands I have to leave 20 minutes earlier. You have to plan ahead to just to go to the dry cleaners.”

The closure has deterred Portola Hills resident Donna Baumgartner from braving the traffic to get to work.

A bartender who works from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m., Baumgartner said the Live Oak Canyon Road alternate route is too dangerous to drive at night.

“I can’t go to work because it’s such a hassle,” Baumgartner said. “I won’t drive it. It’s a dark and desolate road. It’s not safe for a single woman like me to be there at 2 a.m.”

Some also say surrounding businesses are hurt by the closure.

Because drivers have been avoiding the closed intersection at Marguerite Parkway and El Toro Road, one Shell gas station attendant, who asked not to be identified, said business has been slow.

“We get only about half the amount of traffic through here now,” the attendant said.

Alternate routes Thursday funneled residents through the curving and poorly lit Live Oak Canyon Road to the Foothill Transportation Corridor, a toll road that costs 25 cents to re-enter at the southern end of El Toro Road.

Warnings from Mission Viejo officials and road closure signs along side streets Wednesday night helped avoid congestion during Thursday’s morning traffic, Anderson said.

“We had message boards alerting people, so things weren’t too bad,” he said.

The two-lane El Toro Road detour is expected to open by Monday, Anderson said, and El Toro will open in four to six weeks. Whether this will happen again is unknown, officials said.

“We’re dealing with Mother Nature,” public works director Dennis Wilbert said. “If we get more rain next year, we could get slides again.”