First Stretch of South County Tollway Opens

Capping years of controversy, transportation officials on Wednesday opened the gates to Orange County’s newest toll road--the first segment of the San Joaquin Hills Transportation Corridor.

“This is a monumental effort and a critical link in Orange County’s transportation future,” county Supervisor Marian Bergeson told about 600 dignitaries and officials gathered at the tollway’s La Paz Road entrance for the opening ceremony. “It will help solve the crisis of gridlock in Orange County.”

The road opened about 4 p.m., just in time for the evening rush hour. But officials of the which built and operates the new stretch of highway, observed the event with a morning ceremony.

“This is an opportunity to gaze into the future and see what can be done in terms of [the nation’s] transportation system,” said Rodney Slater, head of the Federal Highway Administration. “It’s a perfect example of what can happen when we think [creatively].”

The new road represents the first 7-mile stretch of a route that ultimately will take drivers 15 miles from Laguna Niguel to John Wayne Airport, shaving at least 30 minutes off a drive that currently takes 45 minutes to an hour and a half.

The $1.5-billion project, scheduled to be finished in December, is the cornerstone of three major toll roads in South County--totaling 70 miles--that have been under construction since 1993 and are expected to be completed by 2003.

Drivers will pay tolls of 50 cents to $1, depending on the length of their trip, to traverse the new segment that stretches from Greenfield Drive in Laguna Niguel to Laguna Canyon Road in Laguna Beach. Tolls can be paid either in cash or by using transponders, devices mounted on windshields that allow electronic detectors to automatically debit a driver’s account.

In the last three weeks, according to TCA officials, about 5,000 commuters have obtained transponders for use on the new road.

“This will mean a lot for many families and businesses in South County,” Bergeson said.

But the moment TCA officials were describing as a triumph did not come easily. For years, environmentalists and Laguna Canyon residents had angrily protested the project, arguing that it would destroy the pristine wilderness area through which the road passes.

Some protesters chained themselves to bulldozers to stop the work, prompting legal actions that dragged through the courts for years. And recently, area residents had expressed irritation at the increase in traffic they believe the new road’s opening will bring to Laguna Canyon Road.

All that seemed distant on Wednesday, however, as men wearing ties and women in business suits milled about sipping lemonade under tents and watching the proceedings from white folding chairs.

By late afternoon, TCA officials were describing traffic on the new toll road as relatively light. “A fair number of people used the road in the first half-hour,” spokeswoman Michele Sperl-Miller said. “It looks positive; people are still learning about it.”

At least one driver already familiar with the road said that he was looking forward to spending more time on it.

The driver was Mike Fulmis of Laguna Niguel who with his wife and two children had been selected to be the new tollway’s ceremonial first passengers, riding a borrowed red Cadillac through the opening banner.

Fulmis, a Los Angeles firefighter, regularly spends an hour and a half battling his way to work. The new toll road, he said, could reduce that time considerably.

“I take lots of routes into L.A.,” said Fulmis, 46, “but this one I’m going to enjoy. It will get me home earlier, feeling refreshed. It will let me get home without feeling like kicking the dog.”