Tunnels to Disaster

In Los Angeles, they want to build a tunnel:

ALISO VIEJO, Calif. (AP) - 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.

In Seattle, they want to build a tunnel:

The viaduct and the seawall are both vulnerable to the next quake and must be replaced. This is a 100-year opportunity to reconnect Seattle to its waterfront and build a major piece of our 21st Century transportation network.

Last December, I joined federal, state, and other local officials to announce that we will be replacing the Alaskan Way Viaduct with a tunnel. The tunnel will be safer, will maintain our traffic capacity, and will reconnect Seattle to the waterfront.

Excuse me Mr. Mayor, but isn’t there a major fault called the Seattle Fault that runs east and west and probably within a mile of the proposed tunnel?  This area is full of faults.  We just had a 6.8 quake in February of 2001!  Granted it was located about 35 miles SSW of Seattle, but the next one could be dead center

It will cost billions.  They raised the gas tax 9.5 cents to partially fund this boondoggle.  The existing Viaduct and Seawall could be retrofitted for about half the cost, but the Seattle elitists want to redo the waterfront as well and the only way to do that is to eliminate the existing structure.  I say partially funded, they will be raising the necessary billions by raising more taxes.  We’ll be paying for it forever.

What is it with all these cities digging big tunnels anyway?  Boston’s Big-Dig cost billions in cost over runs alone!  And the silly damn thing leaks!

If they ever get it built (Construction tentatively planned to start in 2009), don’t look for me to drive it.

Hat Tip:  Wizbang

VW

Comments

[Jon]

I spent 9 years out in Southern California for 9 years and my wife and I were jolted by at least 5 major earthquakes and I can't imagine anyone in their right mind that would even consider constucting a tunnel in California.