O.C. to Pay Tollway Company for Right to Improve Freeway

The Orange County Transportation Authority on Wednesday agreed to pay $4 million in public funds to a private tollway company to remove a key bottleneck on the heavily traveled Riverside Freeway.

In the latest attempt to relieve congestion on the freeway, the authority’s board members unanimously approved a $12-million widening for a short stretch of the westbound lanes just east of Coal Canyon Road.

To get the project off the ground, the authority will pay $4 million to the owners of the controversial 91 Express Lanes, a privately owned tollway that runs down the middle of the freeway. The lane owners have veto power over improvements to the public portions of the highway.

Under a franchise agreement with the state, owners of the 10-mile turnpike from north Anaheim to the Riverside County line can block freeway widenings or new road construction if those improvements threaten to take away toll lane customers.

Riverside County is now suing to end that agreement, and some critics of the Express Lanes say the restrictions have been a stumbling block to improvements along one of the most congested highways in the state.

“We are no longer willing to sit on the sidelines while traffic continues to get worse,” said Orange County Supervisor Todd Spitzer, who chairs the transportation authority’s board of directors.

Motorists make 250,000 to 270,000 trips a day on the Riverside Freeway through Santa Ana Canyon--most of them commuters headed from Riverside and San Bernardino counties to jobs in Orange and Los Angeles counties. If trends continue, more than 400,000 car trips a day will be made through the corridor by 2020.

The authority and tollway officials described the $4-million payment as a fair compromise that will compensate the Express Lanes for a potential loss of business while allowing improvements to the Riverside Freeway.

More than 30,000 trips a day are made on the Express Lanes. Company officials say a dip in ridership is possible if a new public lane is added and freeway travel times are improved.

“We are happy we could work with Caltrans and OCTA to bring an improvement to the 91 earlier than would have happened otherwise,” said Greg Hulsizer, general manager of the Express Lanes. “This is what happens when you cooperate rather than litigate.”

The project will add a sixth lane along 1,000 yards of westbound freeway just east of Coal Canyon Road. Restriping will take place in the next couple of months to add a temporary lane until the project is finished in January 2004.

The area is now a bottleneck because the highway narrows from six lanes to five for a short distance after entering Orange County. Traffic slows dramatically as motorists in the free stretch of carpool lanes merge to the right to avoid the toll lanes. At the same time, vehicles in the right lanes are merging to the left.

“That lane drop has been a big problem for commuters,” said Corona City Councilman Jeff Miller, who uses the Riverside Freeway to get to work in Orange County. “Small projects like this can make a huge difference.”

The California Department of Transportation will provide $7.9 million for the project. Under the agreement with the tollway, Orange County buses also will be able to use the Express Lanes without paying the toll.

Transportation authority officials say the lane project will be completed at least two years earlier than contemplated under a court settlement reached a few years ago after the Express Lanes sued Caltrans to halt a widening project. The settlement provided for a sixth lane in the project area by 2006 at the earliest.

Some Riverside County officials have criticized the lane addition, saying government funds should not be paid to a private company to make a public highway safer and less congested. The county’s pending lawsuit against the tollway and Caltrans alleges that the franchise agreement is unconstitutional.

Supervisor Bob Buster said the project allows California Private Transportation Co., the owners of the 91 Express Lanes, to exploit the franchise agreement to increase revenue.

Others such as Supervisor Tom Mullen welcomed the transportation authority’s project, saying that people on his side of the county line “should be appreciative of the fact that Orange County is trying to solve the same problems they are dealing with.”

Authority officials said Wednesday that the payment to the Express Lanes should be repaid if the authority proceeds with a proposal to buy out the entire tollway. Negotiations for a sale are scheduled to begin later this month or in February.

The authority decided to take action on the lane addition after a bill to expedite the project stalled in the Legislature. The measure by Assemblywoman Lynn Daucher (R-Brea) would have authorized the use of state funds to compensate California Private Transportation for any loss of revenue.

“What OCTA did is exactly what would have happened under my bill,” Daucher said. “This gives people hope that we will start resolving long-standing congestion issues on the 91.”