Wednesday, August 10, 2005
TriTunnel Express - Tunnels in Search of a Destination
The TriTunnel Express, a scheme that has been bouncing around
for a few years now and the most recent fantasy conjured up to
resolve Orange County's transportation woes, has made the news
again recently.
The first time I heard of it was during a presentation by Jack Wagner, Executive Director of the Orange County Regional Airport Authority as he peddled the idea before the Costa Mesa City Council more than eighteen months ago. His pitch at the time was that this project - three multi-use tunnels between Orange County and Riverside County - was the answer to Orange County's air transportation problems. Novel idea, huh? A tunnel to solve air transportation problems - imagine that.
During his presentation this contemporary reincarnation of P.T. Barnum told us not to worry about the cost. He told us that, even though this latest hustle would cost over $3 billion (that estimate has now risen to nearly $6 billion) it would be financed by bonds - but if it didn't "pencil out" it wouldn't be built. If that has a familiar ring to it, just remember the San Joaquin Hills Toll Road - the last "great" Orange County transportation idea that is now hemorrhaging money like a burst aorta. I find it interesting, by the way, that some members of the same management team that guided the San Joaquin Hills Toll Road into a quagmire of red ink are lined up to operate the tunnels, too.
He went on to tell us how the three tunnels would carry not only automobiles and trucks, but would also include a gasoline pipeline. I've gone to their slick web site recently, the link for which can be found on my Useful Links page, and found that, in it's latest permutation, two of the tunnels would each actually carry cars, fiber optic cables, an oil pipeline and a 500,000 volt electrical transmission line. Now, there's a formula for a real E-Ticket Ride!
When the subject of safety came up Wagner assured us that, despite the fact that the tunnels would cross four active earthquake faults, they would be perfectly safe. As mentioned again in a recent news piece, he quoted Dr. Charles F. Richter of Richter Scale fame as stating that a tunnel is the safest place to be in an earthquake. I suspect the good doctor didn't have in mind a tunnel crossing four active fault lines, filled with flammable liquids and containing a convenient 500,000 volt ignition source. The image of Saddleback Peak being launched toward Catalina Island following a quake and resultant explosion floats in my cranium as I contemplate this project. Yes, sir - I'm going to run for those tunnels at the first sign of "The Big One".
And then there's the engineering challenge of venting the exhaust fumes of 120,000 cars a day from tunnels twelve miles long below a couple thousand feet of Saddleback Peak. Sure, I suspect the technology is there but, like almost everything else in life, it simply becomes a function of time and money.
During that presentation near the end of 2003 we were also told that consultants would be paid a premium for the initial planning so it could be compressed into one year instead of the normal three required because time was of the essence - that Orange County freeways would be in a state of perpetual gridlock by 2010. That sounded a little suspicious, but to the proponents it made perfect sense. If you have an extremely questionable plan you simply speed up the process so it can slide past the residents of the county unnoticed. Here we are, more than eighteen months later, with the proponents in a flat-out sprint and gaining momentum.
The Metropolitan Water District of Los Angeles has jumped aboard this project recently because it apparently sees a way to move water from the Inland Empire to Orange County at a reasonable cost by piggybacking the transportation tunnels. To me, that's the only part of this thing that makes sense.
As bizarre as this project was initially, it has become even more so recently. Recent news reports now inform us that the good folks in the Inland Empire don't want a commercial airport at the site of the former March Air Force Base - the primary reason for this triple hole in the ground in the first place. So, much as the now-dozing CenterLine light rail project was a train to nowhere, this hole into which somebody will be asked to dump money by the ton is a transportation corridor in search of a destination. The proponents of this plan are in a tizzy trying to figure out how they can hang a left turn mid-tunnel and end up popping out of the mountain somewhere close to the Ontario Airport to meet their objective of relieving Orange County's air transportation problems.
Let us summarize: Nearly $6 billion to build it; no destination; four active earthquake faults; two oil pipelines; two 500,000 volt electric lines; the exhaust from more than 120,000 cars and a management team with track record of red ink on these kinds of projects. Yep, that sounds like a great idea to me. This is yet another pie-in-the-sky scheme being foisted off on the gullible residents of Orange County. Hopefully, enough of us will wake up, stand up and speak up against this one before it goes any further.
I'm not saying everything is wonderful transportation-wise in Orange County. The 91 corridor through the Santa Ana Canyon is a disaster almost any time of any day. Clearly, it's time to solve that problem, but double-stacking that right-of-way makes much more sense than the tunnels. All the TriTunnel Express does is divert precious fiscal and intellectual resources from actual, workable solutions.
10:24 am pdt
The first time I heard of it was during a presentation by Jack Wagner, Executive Director of the Orange County Regional Airport Authority as he peddled the idea before the Costa Mesa City Council more than eighteen months ago. His pitch at the time was that this project - three multi-use tunnels between Orange County and Riverside County - was the answer to Orange County's air transportation problems. Novel idea, huh? A tunnel to solve air transportation problems - imagine that.
During his presentation this contemporary reincarnation of P.T. Barnum told us not to worry about the cost. He told us that, even though this latest hustle would cost over $3 billion (that estimate has now risen to nearly $6 billion) it would be financed by bonds - but if it didn't "pencil out" it wouldn't be built. If that has a familiar ring to it, just remember the San Joaquin Hills Toll Road - the last "great" Orange County transportation idea that is now hemorrhaging money like a burst aorta. I find it interesting, by the way, that some members of the same management team that guided the San Joaquin Hills Toll Road into a quagmire of red ink are lined up to operate the tunnels, too.
He went on to tell us how the three tunnels would carry not only automobiles and trucks, but would also include a gasoline pipeline. I've gone to their slick web site recently, the link for which can be found on my Useful Links page, and found that, in it's latest permutation, two of the tunnels would each actually carry cars, fiber optic cables, an oil pipeline and a 500,000 volt electrical transmission line. Now, there's a formula for a real E-Ticket Ride!
When the subject of safety came up Wagner assured us that, despite the fact that the tunnels would cross four active earthquake faults, they would be perfectly safe. As mentioned again in a recent news piece, he quoted Dr. Charles F. Richter of Richter Scale fame as stating that a tunnel is the safest place to be in an earthquake. I suspect the good doctor didn't have in mind a tunnel crossing four active fault lines, filled with flammable liquids and containing a convenient 500,000 volt ignition source. The image of Saddleback Peak being launched toward Catalina Island following a quake and resultant explosion floats in my cranium as I contemplate this project. Yes, sir - I'm going to run for those tunnels at the first sign of "The Big One".
And then there's the engineering challenge of venting the exhaust fumes of 120,000 cars a day from tunnels twelve miles long below a couple thousand feet of Saddleback Peak. Sure, I suspect the technology is there but, like almost everything else in life, it simply becomes a function of time and money.
During that presentation near the end of 2003 we were also told that consultants would be paid a premium for the initial planning so it could be compressed into one year instead of the normal three required because time was of the essence - that Orange County freeways would be in a state of perpetual gridlock by 2010. That sounded a little suspicious, but to the proponents it made perfect sense. If you have an extremely questionable plan you simply speed up the process so it can slide past the residents of the county unnoticed. Here we are, more than eighteen months later, with the proponents in a flat-out sprint and gaining momentum.
The Metropolitan Water District of Los Angeles has jumped aboard this project recently because it apparently sees a way to move water from the Inland Empire to Orange County at a reasonable cost by piggybacking the transportation tunnels. To me, that's the only part of this thing that makes sense.
As bizarre as this project was initially, it has become even more so recently. Recent news reports now inform us that the good folks in the Inland Empire don't want a commercial airport at the site of the former March Air Force Base - the primary reason for this triple hole in the ground in the first place. So, much as the now-dozing CenterLine light rail project was a train to nowhere, this hole into which somebody will be asked to dump money by the ton is a transportation corridor in search of a destination. The proponents of this plan are in a tizzy trying to figure out how they can hang a left turn mid-tunnel and end up popping out of the mountain somewhere close to the Ontario Airport to meet their objective of relieving Orange County's air transportation problems.
Let us summarize: Nearly $6 billion to build it; no destination; four active earthquake faults; two oil pipelines; two 500,000 volt electric lines; the exhaust from more than 120,000 cars and a management team with track record of red ink on these kinds of projects. Yep, that sounds like a great idea to me. This is yet another pie-in-the-sky scheme being foisted off on the gullible residents of Orange County. Hopefully, enough of us will wake up, stand up and speak up against this one before it goes any further.
I'm not saying everything is wonderful transportation-wise in Orange County. The 91 corridor through the Santa Ana Canyon is a disaster almost any time of any day. Clearly, it's time to solve that problem, but double-stacking that right-of-way makes much more sense than the tunnels. All the TriTunnel Express does is divert precious fiscal and intellectual resources from actual, workable solutions.
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