Posted on 11/12/2005 7:08:58 PM PST by NormsRevenge
ALISO VIEJO, Calif. - Traffic is so bad along the eastern rim of Los Angeles' suburban ring that regional planners are considering the once unthinkable — an 11-mile tunnel through a mountain range in earthquake country.
Critics question the logic of building a multibillion-dollar project in a region so prone to earthquakes that an alternate proposal for a double-decker highway was deemed too dangerous. The tunnel would begin barely a mile from a fault that produced a 6.0-magnitude earthquake about a century ago.
"It's absolutely absurd to have a tunnel 700 feet below ground in earthquake country," said Cathryn DeYoung, mayor of Laguna Niguel and a vocal opponent. "I mean, would you want to be in that tunnel?"
Planners are due to make a decision in mid November on whether to pursue the project.
The proposal for what would be the world's second-longest road tunnel would create a new path between sprawling inland suburbs and Orange County, which has become one of Southern California's fastest-growing job centers.
Such a project could cost up to $9 billion and take 25 years.
Transportation officials insist something drastic must be done to deal with the crippling traffic congestion between Orange and Riverside counties, which are separated by the 25-mile-long Santa Ana Mountains. Nearly 400,000 people commute into Orange County daily from four surrounding counties and nearly all of them drive.
California Highway 91, the only major road connecting Riverside County, where homes are more affordable, to jobs-rich northern Orange County carries 268,000 cars a day, nearly 50,000 more than it was built to handle. Officials expect that to increase over the next 25 years to nearly a half-million cars per day.
Howard Gottesman, 44, can spend 1 1/2 hours on Highway 91 to travel just six miles from his job as a property manager in Orange County to his home in Corona, just inside Riverside County.
"I call it the longest six miles in the world. It's wear and tear on the car and it's wear and tear on me," said Gottesman. "They need to do something, whether it's double-decking the freeway or tunneling under the mountains. We need relief."
Planners for Orange and Riverside counties have spent the past 18 months and $15 million in federal funds studying the issue. A committee of local and regional officials is expected to choose elements from three main alternatives by Nov. 18. Two of those alternatives include a version of the tunnel. Selecting a tunnel option would trigger years more of studies.
As currently conceived, the four- or six-lane tunnel would make up more than two-thirds of a 15-mile corridor connecting Interstate 15 with two toll roads in central Orange County.
The tunnel would rank second in length to Norway's 15-mile Laerdal Tunnel, which opened in 2000, said Michael Litschi, spokesman for the Orange County Transportation Authority. There are longer railroad tunnels, including the 33.5-mile Seikan Tunnel in Japan and the 31.3-mile Channel Tunnel linking England and France.
Litschi said engineers were waiting to see if the committee chooses the tunnel option before doing more studies on the Lake Elsinore fault system, but acknowledged that seismic activity is a "major concern."
Local officials have worked closely with a British engineering company that has helped build some of the largest tunnels in the world and has concluded that the tunnel is "viable and feasible," said H. Tony Rahimian, a consultant who helped devise the tunnel proposal.
"A tunnel is actually a very safe place. We don't want to run it through the faults and we're going to avoid that," he said.
Many critics say a tunnel will never suffice and suggest more mass transit.
"Every study shows that you can't build your way out of congestion," said Karl Warkomski, mayor of Aliso Viejo, in southern Orange County. "Eventually, you're going to get a point where you're back to square one — where we are now, or even worse."
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On the Net:
Riverside-Orangeside County Connection: http://rcocconnection.info
Hopefully this is a Lib area, they got rid of gun ownership in SF, they deserve what they sow.
As long as the federal government does not pay for it, or bail out CA when it goes bust.
IN earthquake country
What they smoking at Cantrans
Your choice to live there like that.
Brown nosing Pelosi? This is insane.
LOL----you know both of those are part of the package...
I say DUMB...DUMB....DUMB...besides, "the Big Dig" in Mass. didn't even have to worry about earthquakes and it has turned into a boondoggle.
Actually, it is in the heart of GOP country, Orange County.
It is extremely expensive to live in OC, and so their is a massive building boom going on in Riverside County. The 91 is main corridor for traveling between the two counties. Some people would rather go south to San Diego County to take the 76 or 78 to Riverside.
There is one other overland route, the Ortega highway. It would make more sense to straighten out the Ortega and widen it from its current 1 lane in each direction than to build a tunnel.
(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie.Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")
Let me guess - this is gonna be like New Orleans, only with a quake instead of flooding.
They build the tunnel, a quake collapses it and kills everyone inside, the federal government gets blamed for not responding quick enough, billions of taxpayer money is budgeted for rebuilding it, and there's another "relief for the victims" drive across the country.
Yep, flattened cars don't use much gas. Safety first.
New Orleans the sequel
thanks, did know that. It's just a tunnel.. what kind of lame brain idea is that in an area where they are prone to the big one. I would prefer a wide road with a chance than a tunnel without a chance.
(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie.Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")
(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie.Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")
If traffic on that California Hwy 91 is already insufferable, how are they going to deal with it over the next 25 years as this tunnel is built? And when the tunnel is built, will it even be enough?
There is, of course, an easy solution to the enormous traffic problems we have in our cities. Simply have everybody who can telecommute work from home. At least half the workers slogging off to work everyday can do the same work in their homes with a telephone, computer and VPN connection.
Nah. I imagine the people they quoted about how a tunnel wouldn't be endangered by an earthquake are probably right. Doesn't make it a good idea, though, considering California's fiscal situation. But the unions and the Dems obviously couldn't care less.
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