SJ Hills pike opens with 44k v/d

SJ Hills pike opens with 44kv/d

The San Joaquin Hills Corridor (SJH) turnpike collected tolls over its full length from Nov 25 and in its first 5 days of non-holiday weekdays was operating in the range 40 to 50kv/d for an average 44,000 veh/d. The 24km, 6-lane, 10-interchange road in Orange County in the far south of the greater Los Angeles area extends south from the end of the stub I-73 freeway near John Wayne airport in the Costa Mesa/Newport Beach area to an interchange with I-5 at San Juan Capistrano. It provides an alternative to I-5 and I-405 freeways which converge mid-county and carry over 300kv/d. SJH also provides a more direct connection between the LA freeway grid and surface arterials for about 300,000 'south county' residents in hilly oceanside suburbs.

The SJH was completed 4 months ahead of schedule and on price by a partnership of Keewit and Granite under a design-build arrangement. System integrator and toll operator is Lockheed. Dubbed SR-73 the road will be maintained by the state's Caltrans. Construction cost was over $800m and total project cost is put at $1.5b. In bond financing documents the SJH developer Transportation Corridors Agencies (TCA), a joint powers agency of 11 local municipalities, showed forecasts of daily traffic for the first full year as 75,000 and the first week figures are about half that level. The forecast for 2010 was 120kv/d. The roadway has a 27m free median for expansion to a max 12-lanes, the present width of competitive I-5 located mostly parallel 10 to 15km away.

"Pleased": A TCA rep told us they were "pleased" with first week traffic. A first southern section of the road that lacked connections to the LA freeway grid was running at hardly10kv/d for several months previously, causing it to be dubbed locally the 'ghost road.' For 4 days before toll collection started Nov 25 TCA ran the whole pike as a free road for publicity purposes and got 100kv/d on one of those days.

Tolls for cars go up by quarters to $1 at nearside off-ramp plazas from either end and there's a $2 barrier plaza midway that gets traffic going halfway or more along. 8 ramp plazas are unmanned with coin machine and e-toll, and midway 2 ramp plazas and the mainline barrier plaza are manned. The e-toll system installed by Lockheed uses Texas Instrument equipment and is part of the "FasTrak" system in use on the SR-91 Express run by the Keewit/Cofiroute/Granite partnership and on the TCA's first toll road the Foothill that opened in 1993. It is a multi-lane freeflow system that tolls customers at full highway speed and according to an item in the press kit operates at 99.9% accuracy. Violators get photographed.

Transponders: E-tolling is an instant hit with California motorists. About 40% of SJH users are already using FasTrak transponders and 500 new ones/day are being issued. TCA says it is running low on stocks and is ordering more. On its Foothill road over 60% of transactions are now e-toll. SR-91 Express of course is 100% e-toll.

TCA has a third toll road under construction called the Eastern which will connect with its first, the Foothill, and after extension of that by about 2005, should have a total of about 110km of toll roads in the county. California's fifth toll road, a private venture, the SR-125/S east of San Diego is proceeding toward approvals and financing next year — report next issue. (See also "The Corridors" TR#5 July 95 p1; Contacts TCA tel 714 513 3444, www.tcagencies.com)