Riverside County, O.C. Discuss New Freeway Link

Orange County transportation officials grappled Monday with the ambitious idea of building a $2-billion to $3-billion freeway through the Cleveland National Forest, a plan Riverside County officials insist would improve chronic traffic congestion between the two counties.

Meeting with their Riverside County counterparts, members of the Orange County Transportation Authority reviewed outlines for possible routes through the forest and listened as Riverside County appealed to them for financial and political assistance.

Riverside officials have suggested three possible paths: a road from Cajalco Road in Corona to the Foothill Tollway; a route between Lake Elsinore and San Juan Capistrano in the area of the Ortega Highway; and a route between Temecula and San Clemente.

Officials say this last option is the least likely to succeed, because of rugged terrain and environmental protections.

In the end Monday, OCTA officials said they are in no political position at the moment to commit themselves to such a plan. But they told Riverside officials that they are interested in studying the idea.

“To ask us for a commitment at this point is premature,” said Laurann Cook, OCTA chairwoman and a Fountain Valley City Council member. “We want to be a helping neighbor, but we need to catch up. We need more time.”

Among other things, OCTA officials said, they need to consider the consequences of residential and environmental opposition to such a road, as well as its impact on the revenues of public toll roads in Orange County.

“If we’re not careful, we’ll have some serious explaining to do to the local folks,” said OCTA director and Orange County Supervisor Tom Wilson, who noted that Orange County residents are already opposed to extending the Foothill Tollway to the south.

Although Riverside officials say the proposed road would not require legislative action, it must still win approval from numerous county, state and federal authorities, not the least of which are the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Forest Service, which manages the 135,000 acres of federal wilderness shared by Orange and Riverside counties.

“They’re not prohibited from making a proposal, but it’s going to have to go through a lot of layers of approval,” said Judy Behrens, a Forest Service spokeswoman. “This is not a simple process.”

At Monday’s meeting in Anaheim Hills, Riverside County Transportation Commission members said there is a dire need for a new route between the counties.

With increasing numbers of Orange County employees seeking affordable housing in Riverside County, officials there said constituents are demanding solutions to commuter gridlock. More and more, Riverside officials said, they are hearing complaints of weekday commutes stretching as long as two hours each way.

There is only one major gateway between the two counties, the Riverside Freeway. It is already congested, and rush-hour speeds are predicted to slow to 7 mph over the next two decades.

“We have no alternative,” said John F. Tavaglione of the Riverside County Transportation Commission and Board of Supervisors. “The negative economic impact on both counties will be severe.”

Eric Haley, executive director of the Riverside County Transportation Commission, said officials would even consider a toll road if it appeared funding would be a problem. “We wouldn’t preclude anything, including tolls, especially tolls on trucks,” Haley said.

Riverside officials have been studying the possibility of constructing a new traffic corridor for more than a year as part of an overall county transportation plan.

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Through the Woods

Transportation officials are reviewing three possible freeway routes through the Cleveland National Forest designed to relieve congestion for commuters traveling between Orange and Riverside counties.

Source: Orange County Transportation Authority

Graphics reporting by BRADY MacDONALD/ Los Angeles Times