Vote set on toll roads’ operations merger

Alicia Robinson

The Transportation Corridor Agencies, which govern the San Joaquin

Hills Toll Road and Foothill and Eastern toll roads, are set to vote

Thursday on whether to consolidate the toll roads’ operations.

Officials have been working for two years on the merger to prevent

the San Joaquin Hills Toll Road from defaulting on its debts. Board

members postponed a vote on the merger last week so they could review

an independent report that was expected Friday.

Some board members wanted a chance to peruse a report from

investment analyst First Southwest to make sure all the details have

been worked out, said Gary Monahan, Costa Mesa mayor and a board

member of the San Joaquin Hills toll road’s governing agency.

The current plan allows the agencies to sell $3.9 billion in bonds

and restructure their debts at low interest rates. The San Joaquin

Hills Toll Road would begin defaulting on its debt in 2005 if the

merger does not take place, Transportation Corridor Agencies

spokeswoman Clare Climaco said.

The Eastern and Foothill toll roads run from the Riverside Freeway

to Irvine and Rancho Santa Margarita, and the San Joaquin Hills Toll

Road runs from Newport Beach to the San Diego Freeway in San Juan

Capistrano.

If operations are consolidated, the San Joaquin Hills Toll Road

would collect tolls through 2054 and the Foothill and Eastern toll

roads would charge tolls through 2044, Climaco said. In previous

estimates, tolls would have been charged until 2037 for the San

Joaquin Hills Toll Road, but Monahan has said the road’s financial

woes are due to inaccurate revenue projections.

Without the merger, the Foothill and Eastern toll roads would be

able to stop tolls in 2040 or extend them through 2045 to complete

the extension of the Foothill-South Toll Road, Climaco said.

Before seeing the report, Monahan said he expected the board to

approve the merger at next week’s meeting.

“I’m not expecting any bolts of lightning in there,” he said.

“This thing has been studied. It has been reviewed by some of the

best financial advisors in the country.”

Newport Beach City Councilman Gary Adams, a toll road agency board

member, said he was ready to vote for the merger Thursday, but he

expects a close vote next week.

“There’s this notion that the people paying tolls on the

Foothill/Eastern will have to bail out the San Joaquin and it’s not

fair to them,” Adams said. “I don’t think that’s an accurate

depiction of what’s going to happen. In the consolidation, when you

look at the numbers, the San Joaquin carries its own weight in the

enterprise.”

There may be some ideological opposition to the governing agencies

taking on more debt than they now carry, but toll road users will

repay the debt, he said.

Adams and Monahan agreed that the merger makes sense. If toll road

operations are not consolidated, it will mean higher tolls on the San

Joaquin Hills Toll Road and more traffic on surface streets in

Newport-Mesa, they said.