California State Route 73
State Route 73 (SR 73) is a state highway in the U.S. state of California, running from the junction with Interstate 5 in San Juan Capistrano north through the San Joaquin Hills to its junction with Interstate 405 in Costa Mesa. The entirety of the route is located in Orange County. From its southern terminus, the first of the highway are a toll road, which opened in November 1996. This segment of SR 73 is operated by the San Joaquin Hills Transportation Corridor Agency named the San Joaquin Hills Transportation Corridor. The last of the highway , which opened in 1978, are part of the Corona del Mar Freeway. SR 73's alignment follows an approximately parallel path between the Pacific Coast Highway and the San Diego Freeway. For the three-mile freeway segment, there are no HOV lanes currently, but the medians have been designed with sufficient clearance for their construction should the need arise in the future. Route description. State Route 73 begins in northern San Juan Capistrano near the Mission Viejo border at an interchange with Interstate 5. The freeway heads northwest into the city of Laguna Niguel before the tolled portion begins at  the Greenfield Drive exit. After passing Greenfield Drive, SR 73 enters into the city of Aliso Viejo before entering Laguna Beach, where SR 73 has an interchange with SR 133. Following this, the road passes through Crystal Cove State Park, where the main toll plazas are located. After leaving the state park, SR 73 straddles the border between Irvine and Newport Beach and provides easy access to University of California, Irvine through the Bison Avenue exit. Following the MacArthur Boulevard exit, the tolled part of the road ends and becomes a freeway. SR 73 continues into Newport Beach, running along  the southern boundary of Orange County John Wayne Airport (IATA Airport Code SNA). Entering Costa Mesa, SR 73 interchanges with SR 55 before ending at I-405. State Route 73 is part of the California Freeway and Expressway System, and is part of the National Highway System, a network of highways that are considered essential to the country's economy, defense, and mobility by the Federal Highway Administration. History. Most of State Route 73 is a limited-access toll highway designed to reduce congestion within Orange County on the Pacific Coast Highway (State Route 1) and the San Diego Freeway (Interstates  5, and 405) by providing a direct route through the San Joaquin Hills. State Route 73 is not a toll road over its entire length. From its northbound terminus heading southbound, the first of State Route 73 have no tolls and make up the entire Corona Del Mar Freeway. State Route 73's previous alignment had the freeway portion end at MacArthur Boulevard, and the SR 73 designation ran along MacArthur south to meet Route 1 in Corona del Mar. Under the current alignment, heading southbound, State Route 73 becomes a designated toll road immediately after the Jamboree/MacArthur ramp  and remains so until its southern terminus at I-5. Though the next ramp heading southbound (Bison Avenue) is part of the toll road, it is toll-free, as is the first ramp heading northbound from the southern terminus (Greenfield Drive). Design and construction of the highway cost a total of $800 million. The design and construction was overseen by the San Joaquin Hills Transportation Corridor Agencies, or SJHTCA, an agency formed in 1988 for the express purpose of designing the tollway. In the end, State Route 73 included 10 interchanges, 68 bridges, of retaining walls, and of excavation at  completion. Construction was divided into four different sections, each with its own management system and quality control. A joint venture led by Kiewit Pacific Co., a subsidiary of Kiewit Corporation, completed this project in 1996. State Route 73's toll road was the first to be financed with tax-exempt bonds on a stand-alone basis including construction and environmental risk. In 2011, $2.1 billion in debt for the San Joaquin Hills toll roads was restructured, which pushed back the time until the bonds are paid off and the route becomes a state-owned freeway to 2042. In 2014 , the debt was again restructured in an attempt to get improved interest rates, improved debt ratings, and in the process save $44 million in debt repayment. This resulted in another 8 years of payments, delaying the pay-off date to 2050. Under this new plan the debt can be paid off earlier than 2050, if ridership and revenue improves. Tolls. The tolled portion of SR 73 (beginning after Greenfield Drive in the northbound direction, and starting after the Bison Avenue exit in the southbound direction) employs a barrier toll system, where drivers are charged flat-rate tolls based on  what particular toll booths they pass through. Since May 13, 2014, the road has been using an all-electronic, open road tolling system, and on October 2, 2019, the license plate tolling program, under the brand name "ExpressAccount", was discontinued. Drivers may still pay using the FasTrak electronic toll collection system, via a one time payment online, or in person at Transportation Corridor Agencies's customer service center in Irvine. Those using Fastrak are charged a lower toll than those using the other two methods. Drivers must pay within 5 days after their trip on the toll road or they  will be assessed a toll violation. Drivers who drive the entire tolled segment of SR 73 will only encounter one gantry, the Catalina View Mainline toll gantry. , the gantry uses a congestion pricing scheme based on the time of day for FasTrak users, while non-FasTrak drivers must pay the maximum toll for peak weekday hours ($8.65 for the standard two-axle car), regardless of the day and time. Tolls are also collected at a flat rate at the northbound exits and southbound entrances of La Paz Road ($2.50), Aliso Creek Road ($3.11), and SR 133 ($ 3.76); and at the southbound exits and northbound entrances of Newport Coast Drive ($3.50) and Bonita Canyon Drive ($2.12).