Decision day: Toll road

The California Coastal Commission decides the fate Wednesday of a controversial toll road project designed to ease one of Southern California's worst bottlenecks: The road from Orange County to San Diego County. The project is strongly opposed by environmentalists because it would cut through parkland and the famed surfing spot. The decision is considered a fateful moment in the effort to improve the region's traffic woes. While most proposals for freeway expansion lack money, the tollroad is ready with financing. And backers ask if this project can't get off the ground, what are the prospects that there will ever be another freeway built in the L.A. metro area?

The Times' Dan Weikel has a strong preview of what is at stake.

Comments

[Paul]

I do not support the toll road. As a San Diegan and a native Californian, I am concerned about the continued growth of California due to interstate and international immigration swallowing the natural beauty of my state whole. I do not care how high-tech their run-off catching systems are, nor how unintrusive they say the elevated freeway will be as it passes the parks and campgrounds; it will ruin that area FOREVER.

I say if Orange County wants their toll road so badly, bulldoze through some Orange County homes to build it. If they don't have money, then turn the 5 into a publicly owned toll road and make the people who use the 5 pay for it. Better yet, throw support behind the California High Speed Rail project so that you can eventually take a high speed train from Orange County to San Diego if you need to; it'd be a lot faster than driving.

Even if the TCA manages to finish this toll road, you are still going to have the bottleneck when the 5 goes from ten lanes to eight lanes inbetween SJC and Clemente. The toll road will merge the eight lanes of the 241 (upgradeable to twelve lanes) into the eight lanes of the 5, creating a second bottle neck.

[Tom L]

Actually, one of the key factors that forms a great surf break is...sediment deposition. In the case of Trestles, the creek plays a huge role in keeping the break formed perfectly for surfing. Even at 400 meters from the shore, this project would greatly affect those patterns and risk destroying one of the best breaks in the United States. Beyond that, San O is a state park. Like one of the commissioners insinuated, proposing to build a private highway through a state park is both insulting and lazy.

[Dan Fraser]

I support the toll road extension. The interchange won't get within a 1/4 mile of the beach. So anyone who says it will affect the surfing is not telling the whole truth. Besides, right on the beach is a major rail road track, connecting LA and San Diego with many trains a day. And there is a nuclear power plant just down a ways from the spot. Pristine beach this is not.

And if they kill this, the same people will prevent the expansion of I5 as well. Because really, the I5 needs to be double decked all through there, a much uglier proposition. and more expensive.