GUEST EDITORIAL
The 710 Freeway Tunnel is a 20th century solution to a 21st century problem. We can’t build our way out of gridlock by building more freeways.
By Michael Colton
For example, Caltrans spent over $1 billion to widen the 405 Freeway over the Sepulveda Pass. After all that money was spent, travel times are one minute slower at peak times than before construction began. We must instead start building for people, not vehicles.
In contrast to the freeway system, Metro Rail in Los Angeles County has been an overwhelming success. For example, the Expo Line, the newest light rail line in Los Angeles County, has exceeded its 2020 ridership projections in its first year of operation. As additional light rail lines are built, and as commuters adjust their travel patterns to this mode of transportation, the system becomes even more effective.
The 710 Freeway Dual-Bore Tunnel is projected to cost $5.65 million, or about $900 million per mile. In contrast, light rail can currently be built for $100 million per mile at grade, $200 million per mile for aerial sections, and $400 million per mile for tunneled sections.
Canopy structure at the Monrovia Gold Line Station (Photo – Gold Line Construction Authority press release).
For the same price-tag as the Freeway Tunnel, we can significantly expand our regional light rail network and build all the following projects:
– Build 710 Light Rail (LRT) from Pasadena to the East LA Gold Line
7.5 miles at $336 million per mile (based on Metro estimates)
Total Price: $2.42 billion dollars (based on Metro estimates)
– Place lightrail underground along Mednik Avenue in East LA to spare existing commercial businesses
1 mile for $200 million additional dollars compared to proposed aerial segment
– Fund Azusa to Montclair Gold Line Foothill Extension
12.6 miles at $94 million per mile (based on Metro Estimates)
Total Price: $1.18 billion dollars (based on Metro Estimates)
– Build Gold Line Grade Separation in Pasadena at Del Mar, California, and Glenarm
1.2 miles at $200 million per mile
Total Price: $240 million dollars
– Build Pasadena to North Hollywood Light Rail Line via Downtown Glendale and Downtown Burbank
Connect to Orange Line and Red Line Terminus
15.2 miles at $100 million per mile
Total Price: $1.52 billion dollars
For the price of the 710 Freeway Tunnel, we can build over 35 miles of new light rail and still have nearly $100 million dollars left over for other transportation improvements.
Michael Colton is an architect and urban planner from Pasadena. He has worked on several transportation projects in Southern California, including the 710 South EIR.
My simple solution is to issue South Pasadenians special licsence plates or tags which would prevent them from entering or exiting any local freeway for ten or fifteen miles from city limits (providing te tunnel is not a tollway). Must be nice to live in a city where freeway access is handy and nearly private from the start while everyone else has to dodge tgere way through quiete private neighborhoods to connect.