The Board of Directors of the San Joaquin Hills Transportation Corridor Agency (SJHTCA) elected Ross Chun, an Aliso Viejo councilman, to serve as Chairman of the 15-member Joint Powers Authority for a second term in June. Under Chairman Chun’s leadership, the Agency will focus on customer service, toll road enhancements and environmental initiatives for the 15-mile toll road that opened in 1996.
The 73 Toll Road provides a vital link between the John Wayne Airport area and San Juan Capistrano, serving residents and businesses of Newport Beach, Laguna Woods, Aliso Viejo, Laguna Niguel, Laguna Hills and Dana Point. The 73 Toll Road carries an average 100,000 trips each weekday and tolls are collected electronically with FasTrak® ExpressAccount® or with One-Time-Toll online payments. Toll revenue is primarily used to pay for bonds issued to construct the toll road.
In Fiscal Year (FY) 2016, which ended June 30, SJHTCA collected $176.7 million and recorded 30,589,341 million transactions on the 73 Toll Road; an increase of 9.4 percent over the previous year.
In FY17, the SJHTCA Board of Directors will focus on:
- Customer Service – The Toll Roads’ website and mobile app were recently revamped to enhance online toll payments and improve the user’s online experience. In FY17, the process to pay tolls will be simplified and the mobile app will incorporate Apple’s Touch ID feature allowing customers easy access to their account and payments with fingerprint recognition technology. Additionally, SJHTCA recently partnered with major rental car companies to streamline toll payment for rental car drivers and tourists by enabling tolls to be charged directly through the driver’s rental car agreement when they drive The Toll Roads. To date, half a million tolls have been collected through this program.
- Environmental Commitment – Environmental stewardship is a high priority for SJHTCA and FY17 marks 25 years of dedication to long-term environmental protection and management programs. In partnership with the Foothill/Eastern Transportation Corridor Agency (F/ETCA), more than 2,000 acres of open space has been preserved and restored for native habitat and wildlife as part of The Toll Roads. In FY17, the Agency will pursue transferring mitigation properties to other organizations who will manage the land as open space in perpetuity.
- On-Road Experience – In FY17 the Agency is planning to remove toll booths at various ramps along the 73 Toll Road that are no longer used to collect tolls. In addition, due to increased traffic on the 73 Toll Road, engineering studies will be conducted within heavy traffic areas along the route to identify ways to keep traffic free-flowing for daily customers.
“Last month marked the 20th anniversary of the opening of the first phase of the 73 Toll Road in Aliso Viejo and in November we will celebrate the opening of the second phase that linked south Orange County communities to the John Wayne Airport area,” said SJHTCA Chairman Ross Chun. “It’s hard to imagine what traffic in south Orange County would be like without the 73 Toll Road, taking traffic off I-5 and our city streets helps keep our communities moving and growing.”
The San Joaquin Hills Transportation Corridor, together with its sister agency, the Foothill/Eastern Transportation Corridor, make up the Transportation Corridor Agencies (TCA). The TCA are two joint powers authorities formed by the California legislature in 1986 to plan, finance, construct and operate Orange County’s 67-mile public toll road system. Fifty-one miles of the system are complete, including the 73, 133, 241 and 261 Toll Roads. TCA continues to meet the region’s growing need for congestion-free transportation alternatives.
