First of 26 San Joaquin Tollbooths in Position

Providing an early glimpse of what will soon be a familiar sight for thousands of Orange County commuters, the first of 26 tollbooths for the San Joaquin Hills Transportation Corridor was installed near Aliso Creek Road on Wednesday.

The 15-mile tollway linking San Juan Capistrano and Newport Beach is set for completion in December. The first section, a four-mile stretch between Moulton Parkway and Laguna Canyon Road, is to open in July.

The 19 1/2-foot-tall tollbooths are made of brushed stainless steel outer shells and curved evergreen glass panels. The design complements the columns in the tollway’s bridges, officials said.

“They’re designed so they won’t be obtrusive,” said Lisa Telles, spokeswoman for the San Joaquin Hills Transportation Corridor Agency. “They’re not like the ticket booths when you go into a parking structure.”

The controversial toll road was first set to open in March 1997, officials said, but will be completed about three months ahead of schedule despite a number of setbacks.

A court injunction, brought by a group seeking to protect the environmentally sensitive canyons along the toll road’s route, halted construction for 16 months. The order was lifted by a federal appeals court in January 1995, and work on the tollway resumed.

Contractors have been working in 10-hour shifts and putting extra equipment on the job to make up for lost time, officials said.

The toll road’s southernmost point is Interstate 5, just south of Crown Valley Parkway. It extends to the north at the Corona del Mar Freeway and MacArthur Boulevard.

The $1.4-billion tollway will have 10 interchanges, including El Toro Road, Laguna Canyon Road, Newport Coast Drive and Aliso Creek Road.

The cost to travel the entire tollway will be $2. When it first opens, the road is projected to carry 70,000 cars a day and will ultimately carry 170,000 cars a day.