Lacking a Connection : School That Lost Driveway in Freeway Widening Seeks Caltrans’ Help

TUSTIN — Sister Mary Rodriguez can understand why nations fight wars to gain access to the sea.

The 50-year-old principal of St. Jeanne de Lestonnac School at 16791 Main St. in Tustin says the nuns have been waging a war of their own against the California Department of Transportation to gain access to a road.

Since the widening of the Santa Ana Freeway started two years ago, she said, the school of 585 students has practically been isolated. The only road in and out of the school is a private driveway that owners of a nearby condominium complex have allowed the school to use, she said.

“We’re trapped,” Rodriguez said. “Does Caltrans expect our students to come to school in helicopters? I think that’s ridiculous.”

The main driveway to the school was closed because it obstructed the improvements to Main Street.

Caltrans officials said street and driveway closures are not uncommon along the length of the $1.6-billion project, considered the most massive in Orange County.

Ralph Neal, Caltrans right-of-way deputy district director, said the school can open the driveway onto Main Street if it pays for the cost.

But the nuns, members of the Roman Catholic Order of the Sisters of the Company of Mary Our Lady, say it is too expensive. The parents of the children at the school say it is unfair.

“They denied us public access, they must pay for putting it back, “ said Karen Nowlan, who has two children attending the school. “This would not have happened with a public school. It’s just a sad situation.”

To build a new driveway, the school would have to spend $140,000, said Sister Mary Salud Estrada, 60, the school’s financial administrator.

That is in addition to the $100,000 the school already has spent on an engineering study to persuade Caltrans to build a driveway in the first place.

Estrada said that “Caltrans (should) reimburse us for the tremendous expense that we have incurred.”

“We certainly believe in progress, but we also believe in what is just and fair,” she said. “Even with the new driveway, the situation is still less desirable than it was before.”

Because of the expansion of a bridge over the Santa Ana Freeway, Main Street was lowered several feet from its previous level to allow trucks and other heavy vehicles to pass under the bridge.

Concrete posts supporting the bridge encroached into the school driveway, Estrada said. In addition, the old driveway now rests about six feet above Main Street.

“We were told that it would be impossible to slope the driveway to the street level because the drop was too steep,” Estrada said, “so we had to hire our own engineers to make the study.”

Robert Bein, William Frost & Associates, an Irvine engineering firm, prepared the plans and designs for the driveway.

The nuns bought the property in 1959 from Leroy and Hazel Connelly. Over the years, the school added new buildings and playing fields as enrollment grew from 17 students when it opened in 1961 to more than 500 for the current school year.

Robert F. Waldron, a lawyer representing the nuns, doubts that the previous owners intended to cede the driveway.

“The driveway ran straight to the Connellys’ home,” said Waldron, who has advised the nuns since Caltrans started proceedings to take some of the school’s property for the freeway expansion in 1984.

“It would be unthinkable for him to cede his only access to a public road,” Waldron said. The home has been converted into a chapel.

Caltrans has also acquired 5,000 square feet of the school’s property for the freeway expansion. But the nuns are contesting the $130,000 payment they received, saying it is not even enough to pay for the building of a new driveway while construction continues on the freeway expansion.

Students and teachers have learned to live with the noise, dust and frequent disruptions in water, telephone, gas and electrical services caused by the freeway construction, Rodriguez said.

But safety is a constant worry, she said.

“I’m worried sick,” she said. “If some emergency happens, firetrucks and ambulances would have a hard time getting into the school. And we’re mostly women here.”