The Nation & World section of yesterday’s Orange County Register reported the opening of “the longest land tunnel” in Switzerland. “The 21 mile, $3.5 billion railroad link under the Alps will ease highway traffic.” So while they address their traffic congestion our transportation planners think small. No one disputes the need to find a solution for moving people and goods to and from Riverside County to Orange County. Unless we triple deck the 91 freeway we will not satisfy the mobilization thirst of the thousands moving into the new homes being built in the Inland Empire. And they are not the only people on the road. Many Orange County residents travel east to Las Vegas, Palm Springs and the river.
The Swiss tunnel under the Alps mountains, whose construction was paid for by their taxpayers, is twice the distance that was discussed with the proposed Tri Tunnel. Three years ago Adam Probolsky, President Probolsky Research, conducted a fairly close poll regarding the Tunnel in which 44.4 percent of those contacted agreed to support the “privately financed ” project while 49 percent opposed it.
If I am not mistaken the US DOT approved funding to conduct preliminary environmental review under a Presidential Order for streamlining said effort.
Bill Vardoulis’s concept includes “water, fibre optic and other utility links in addition to vehicles in three parallel tunnels.”
To me this concept has a lot of merit and should be strongly promoted.
Snooze you lose. In Mission Viejo we had a small project that I supported called “the expansion of our Norman P Murray Community and Senior Center” in which a multi member Task Force submitted a plan in 2001 that indicated a cost of around $2 million. We dragged our feet, and after “securing a $3 million Grant from CA Dept of Parks & Rec (Oct 2004) toward the $5.5 million estimated cost to complete the expansion” delayed action resulting in a cost increase to around $8.2 million for the construction and another million for design and bid documents (as April of this year). The latest total cost figures of the CIP are somewhere around $10 million a five fold increase when the CIP had citywide support and we had money in the bank. Sorry to digress. Just showing my displeasure with the majority of our Mission Viejo city council.
.
My point is simple. Stop messing around with political maneuvering and seriously consider the private sector Tri Tunnel plan to help address our current and future traffic gridlock challenges.
What say you ?
Not sure why you are complaining about the MV “majority” of the council, they are the ones that actually got the center going again. Ledesma and Reavis sat on their hands for nearly a decade while costs went up, it took Kelly and Maclean to get it going again. If I remember, it was Kelly who brought it back.
All I remember over the past few years is seeing Reavis complain about every nickle that goes into the center. She spends her time on TV griping about the cost of more staff, the cost of parking, the cost of trees, etc. She alone probably did more to delay the center than anyone else in the city.
Kelly should be the one getting the credit for competing it. So Larry, who are you mad at?
The Tunnel is a bad idea. I suspect it will be built because there is lots of money for the companies that will build it. If you open up a new way into the county, all of that traffic from North/Central Orange County along the 91 will move down here in South County.
I can’t comment on MV politics as I do not have the knowledge or history behind it. I can, however, say that during my travel through Europe I was impressed with some of the transportation advancements. Two years ago I spent some time in Brussels visiting NATO. From there we took a train system to Paris. We drove through Germany (very pretty place) and continually noticed the tunnels and bridges.
What struck me was the amount of work done for transportation on roads MUCH less traveled than our own. I also found it perplexing how there were so many tunnels yet we have difficulty engineering one from the 15 to South County.
Just my observations.
Richard Rios
Email response from former county staffer follows:
“I want the tunnel
make engineering so that it accomodates rsm…link it to toll roads…do it”
Another email reply:
“Larry, the mountains that separate OC from Riverside County are one of our greatest assets – by preventing even more explosive urbanization in our communities – which is the no. 1 problem for O.C. It seems to me these projects are primarily pushed by developers and the building industry, often turning into financial and practical boondogles. Best, xxxxxx”
Email response from Orange County elected official:
“I agree. I’ve always supported this concept.”
Can I drive a 1974 De Soto in it.??