Toll Road’s 1st Year of Operation Celebrated
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ALISO VIEJO — One year and more than 18 million car trips after Orange County’s Eastern Toll Road opened, board members on Monday donned orange Caltrans work vests and took to the toll booths, greeting cash customers during the morning commute.
As the cars pulled up to the tall glass-and-silver encased toll booths, Susan Withrow, a Mission Viejo councilwoman and chairman of the Foothill/Eastern board, introduced herself to the customers.
“It’s our birthday today,” she told them, handing over a free ride pass and, on occasion, an application for an electronic toll transponder that would have enabled the driver to bypass the toll booths entirely.
Some people chatted and others needed to be on their way. After all, one of the road’s mottoes is: Because life’s too short.
The event marked the anniversary of the $1.8-billion, 24-mile road that connects the bedroom communities of the Inland Empire with Orange County job centers.
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