Caltrans Faces Two Suits Over 91 Freeway

Riverside County transportation officials filed a lawsuit Wednesday alleging that Caltrans has been illegally using public carpool lanes to guide drivers to the private 91 Express Lanes.

And in Orange County, attorney Richard D. Ackerman filed a claim with Caltrans saying he plans to sue the state agency on behalf of commuters who must contend with gridlock on the Riverside Freeway.

The Riverside lawsuit alleges that Caltrans breached its agreement with the county by illegally encouraging cars with one occupant to use the carpool lanes on the Riverside Freeway. The lanes, financed by a half-cent sales tax paid by Riverside County residents, have been used as a “transition zone” or funnel to collect drivers trying to get into the private toll lanes.

“Those lanes are not being operated as they should be,” said attorney Steven C. DeBaun, who represents the Riverside County Transportation Commission. “The agreements said that Caltrans has to consult with us prior to making any changes, and we were never consulted.”

DeBaun said Caltrans should push the transition zone west into Orange County.

Greg Hulsizer, the toll lanes’ general manager, could not be reached Wednesday. His public-relations manager, Frank Wilson, criticized the lawsuit.

“They’re going to punish their constituents who use the 91 Express Lanes to get home, forcing them out into Orange County and creating a bigger bottleneck in the canyon?” Wilson asked.

Caltrans spokesman Jim Drago would not comment on Wednesday’s legal action.

In October, Caltrans settled a lawsuit by the toll lanes operator, which had sought to block road work that Caltrans initially said was needed to improve safety. In backing down, Caltrans said a non-competition clause in the original contract with the toll road’s operator prevented any work that would siphon business from the private lanes.

That prompted an uproar by state and local officials who said Caltrans was putting profits on the private road ahead of its duty to protect the commuting public.

Ackerman, in his claim, stated that the state should never have agreed to delay road improvements in an effort to help the operator of the private toll lanes attract motorists.

“It is highly immoral that you should voluntarily choose to place the interest of [the California Private Transportation Co.] over the people’s rights to travel and to engage in intrastate commerce,” Ackerman wrote to Caltrans. “The agreement essentially and quite illegally creates an impenetrable monopoly over private transportation in the Orange County/Riverside County corridor.”

Ackerman, who lives in Corona and commutes daily to his Fullerton office, said he does not want any money from the state. He is simply trying to force Caltrans to add lanes to improve traffic flow on the Riverside Freeway, he said.

Ackerman said he became acutely aware of the problem earlier this year when he spent 45 minutes on two consecutive mornings to travel the length of a freeway onramp. “It took 45 minutes on the onramp to get onto the freeway, and there were no accidents,” he said. “This is creating a dangerous situation, with cars darting in and out and cutting through parking lots . . . creating a form of civil disobedience.”

Two months ago, Ackerman filed a claim against Corona demanding that city officials widen ramps onto the Riverside Freeway. His claim was denied, and city officials told him the problem was not the onramps but the bottleneck near the mouth of the 91 Express Lanes, which begin at the Riverside-Orange county line and run 10 miles west to the Costa Mesa Freeway.

Earlier this week, state Assemblyman Rod Pacheco (R-Riverside) announced plans to file legislation next year that would allocate some of the state’s $5 billion surplus to buy out California Private Transportation. Pacheco said the state must first get an independent appraisal to determine the franchise’s worth.

State Sen. Joe Dunn (D-Santa Ana) said Wednesday that Senate hearings into the 91 Express Lanes situation would likely be held in Orange County early next month.