Tollway Agency Selects Ex-Boss as Interim Chief

William Woollett Jr., a former Irvine city manager, was named Wednesday the interim chief executive of the largest toll road operation in Orange County.

Woollett will replace Walter D. Kreutzen, who retired this month after 15 years with the Irvine-based Transportation Corridor Agencies.

Woollett will become the top administrator of the TCA, which operates a 51-mile network of toll roads, including the Foothill-Eastern and the San Joaquin Hills. Woollett also headed the TCA from 1989 to 1999.

He takes charge of an agency that is trying to bail out the faltering San Joaquin Hills tollway, which runs 16 miles through Orange County’s coastal hills. Plagued by lower-than-expected traffic and revenue since 1996, the road is expected to be in the first stages of default on $1.9 billion in bonds by 2007.

In May, TCA board members rejected a plan to merge the system’s turnpike operations and refinance them with a $4-billion bond issue. They are now developing a proposal to lend surplus revenue from the successful Foothill-Eastern to the San Joaquin Hills.

“I look forward to serving board members as they work toward a financial agreement and as they search for a new chief executive,” said Woollett, whose TCA contract is still being negotiated.

Woollett was city manager of Irvine from 1972 to 1989, when he became the TCA’s chief executive for the first time. For the last two years, he has been the interim city manager of Aliso Viejo.

Kreutzen announced his retirement in June after serving as the TCA’s vice president of finance, chief operating officer and chief executive officer. He advanced the use of bond issues and public-private partnerships to finance highways.

Wednesday was his last day at the TCA.