Antonio Parkway Extension is Opened

A 4.5-mile extension of Antonio Parkway opened Monday and should provide immediate relief to South County motorists--reducing traffic on Ortega Highway by a projected 30%.

For commuters weary of long waits on Interstate 5, the extension makes it possible to go from San Juan Capistrano all the way to the Foothill toll road in Rancho Santa Margarita via Antonio Parkway.

“It’s a very important road,” said John Sibley, the county’s director of public facilities. “It will relieve traffic congestion in an area where people are currently trying to find shortcuts to I-5.”

The $28.2-million road, which took 30 months to build, is a key part of transportation plans for the area. Most significant, the road will be a main artery for Ladera Ranch, an 8,100-home development currently in its first phase of construction.

When the road opened to traffic for Monday afternoon’s rush hour, there already was a demand.

“It’s 65 mph with no signals or stops or driveways,” said Douglas Dumhart, a management analyst for San Juan Capistrano. “It will be a much better trip for a lot of people.”

For now, the road seems isolated, strikingly different from the urban bustle of the freeway it parallels. Connecting Oso Parkway with Ortega Highway, the road offers unobstructed views of the rolling hills with little in the way of structures, at least for now.

But work already is underway that will change those vistas. Dumhart said he expects construction equipment to be a constant presence on the road as the planned community takes shape over the next 15 years.

Rancho Mission Viejo LLC, the community’s developer, will repay the county 55% of the road’s cost, Sibley said.

The project was done in about half the usual time to fulfill a deal between the county and the city of San Juan Capistrano.

In exchange for the county finishing the road by early 1999, the city agreed to let the county operate a landfill in San Juan Capistrano, which will take in garbage from San Diego and Los Angeles counties. Orange County is expected to earn a projected $200 million from the imported garbage, a sum that is part of the county’s long-range bankruptcy recovery plan.

The project’s cost originally was estimated at $45 million, but it came out much lower because the project was not as difficult to build as planners had thought.

The four-lane road also has bicycle lanes.

Building the road required moving 9.6 million cubic yards of earth and pouring 200,000 tons of concrete. Some environmentalists opposed the road, objecting to the development of some of the last pristine hillsides in the county.

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New Artery

The Antonio Parkway extension, connecting Oso Parkway and Ortega Highway, is open and projected to make commuting a much easier proposition for South County drivers. The 4.5-mile stretch cost $30 million and is projected to reduce Ortega Highway traffic by 30%.