Legislators Want Answers on 91 Tollway

State legislators announced plans Tuesday to delve into Caltrans’ controversial agreement to delay safety improvements alongside the 91 Express Lanes in order to keep the tollway’s private operator from losing business.

“That is very, very irresponsible,” said Lou Correa (D-Anaheim) who serves on the Assembly Transportation Committee. “It is plainly inappropriate. That 91 Freeway is really a bloodline, a lifeline, for thousands of commuters from Orange and Riverside counties. I don’t believe that is serving commuters’ or taxpayers’ interest.”

Correa, who has called for a legislative hearing on the matter, was responding to reports, first disclosed in The Times, that Caltrans quietly settled a lawsuit two months ago brought by the California Private Transportation Co., operators of the toll lanes.

Caltrans officials said before the settlement that the improvements were essential because they had noticed an unusual pattern of accidents in the area.

But in ending the lawsuit, Caltrans agreed to wait six years before doing even minor work on the notoriously congested Riverside Freeway and major road improvements would not begin until traffic increased by more than 50% on the free lanes, which is not forecast for another 20 years.

State Sen. Betty Karnette (D--Long Beach), the incoming chairwoman of the Senate Transportation Committee, said she would call for a Senate hearing.

“We will be looking into this,” she said. “Anything that affects the people of this state in a negative way, we need to look into. That’s our job.”

Fellow Senate transportation committee member Joe Dunn (D-Santa Ana), a frequent Caltrans’ critic, said the matter needs full scrutiny.

“If the settlement resulted in Caltrans giving in on safety improvements they believed were necessary, and compromising public safety as a result, that is wholly inappropriate and should be looked at closely,” Dunn said.

Dunn said the toll lanes should not have been built next to the freeway.

“We should never have put ourselves in this position in the first place,” he said. “There was an inherent conflict from the get-go. Some way or another there was going to be a conflict like the one we are seeing now.”

The California Private Transportation Co. pushed for the Oct. 12 settlement with Caltrans so the group could sell its toll lane franchise to a nonprofit group of local businessmen called NewTrac.

The $225-million toll road sale collapsed Monday under the weight of concern by top state officials, legislators and potential investors, who poked holes in the traffic forecasts and questioned the close ties of the seller and buyer. Tuesday, a group of Riverside officials continued to lobby top transportation officials, asking that the Caltrans agreement be revoked and that the lanes be returned to the public.

“We asked them to immediately reverse these approvals,” said Riverside County Supervisor Bob Buster.

The key question, officials said, is whether the state compromised its obligations to protect the public for the sake of profits for the private toll road operators. In the state’s initial response to the lawsuit by the toll road operators, Caltrans vigorously defended its right to make improvements on the Riverside Freeway saying the agency has a mandate to “take every action reasonably necessary to protect the traveling public.”

Three months after that July declaration, Caltrans folded, reaching a settlement that critics say will guarantee years of gridlock on the Riverside Freeway. The state agency promised to scrap its plans to add three lanes to the free sections of the Riverside Freeway--two westbound and one eastbound lanes--between the Eastern Toll Road and the Riverside County border.

State officials now say Caltrans had no choice because of the 1993 franchise agreement with the toll road operators, signed by James W. van Loben Sels, Caltrans director under then-Gov. Pete Wilson.

State Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer, whose office is investigating the NewTrac deal, last week called constraints on public highway improvements “deplorable,” saying it was “unacceptable” that major work on the freeway couldn’t be done until traffic got significantly worse.

“At the time these arrangements were made I thought they were too cozy,” Lockyer said. “The law was basically written by toll road proponents and contracts were written by an administration that wanted the toll roads to succeed.”

Correa plans to ask the Assembly Transportation Committee chairman to schedule a hearing next month on the matter.

“This merits a hearing: why Caltrans would approve such limits to expand the 91 highway,” Correa said. “We have to look into this.”

A Caltrans spokesman said the agency would welcome the review.

“The bottom line is that we never have a problem with hearings or answering questions,” said Jim Drago, Caltrans’ spokesman. “We always look forward to the opportunity to answer questions and address any concerns.”

Opponents of the sale of the 91 Express Lanes spent little time celebrating over the death of the deal. Instead, they spent Tuesday lobbying state officials for their assistance to open the toll lanes for free.

“We made a commitment that we would explore some options,” said Bill Sessa, deputy secretary of the state Business, Transportation and Housing Department, which oversees Caltrans. “But it is premature at this phase to know what options we might pursue.”

Buster, the Riverside County supervisor, said he plans to invite Orange County elected officials who serve on the Transportation Corridor Agencies to discuss ways the two counties might be able to come together, perhaps forming a joint agency, to buy out California Private Transportation’s franchise with the state. The TCA runs Orange County’s three public toll roads.

Others suggested the state dip into its billion-plus surplus to buy out the toll road owners.

“That’s a definite possibility,” said state Assemblyman Dick Ackerman (R-Fullerton). “It would be a good use of some of the surplus. But it depends on what the price is, and I have not seen anything in the way of an appraisal.”

Riverside officials simply want to continue their momentum.

“The really bad element, which still exists is there is no public jurisdiction here,” said Riverside County Supervisor John F. Tavaglione. “We need public input and public jurisdiction. And that’s critical.”

* DANA PARSONS

Maybe this time we’ll listen to John Moorlach, who backs converting toll lanes into freeway lanes. B3