Oso Parkway Tollway Fee to Increase

The toll-road fee at Oso Parkway in South County will increase by 25 cents on New Year’s Day, according to a plan approved a year ago by the Transportation Corridor Agencies, which oversee the tollways.

TCA officials temporarily reduced the toll for those particular ramps of the Foothill Transportation Corridor in October of last year to encourage ridership, board member Mike Ward said Friday.

But the fee, which was lowered to 50 cents, will return to the original 75 cents on Jan. 1, he said. The toll booth is in unincorporated Orange County, just east of Mission Viejo.

The change is a planned increase and not related to recent traffic projections for both the Foothill and Eastern tollways next year that fall below initial estimates, Ward said. The county agencies have raised tolls and imposed other fees in recent months to help pay off the multibillion-dollar road projects. The tollways link Riverside to South County, part of the 51 total miles of county toll roads.

“Ridership is up at [Oso Parkway], and that’s what we intended to have happen when we lowered the toll there last year,” Ward said. “But that discount is almost over.”

The reinstated toll rate is expected to remain at 75 cents until 2005.

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Higher Toll

Starting Jan. 1, it will cost motorists 25 cents more to use the Oso Parkway ramsps of the Foothill toll road.

Proposed toll increase to 75 cents.