Last night, Caltrans and Metro faced a skeptical audience in Glendale when they presented their first community outreach meeting on the proposed underground extension of the 710, which would link the freeway to the 210. Transpo officials just finished a $6 million "geotechnical" feasibility study that found that five underground routes—encompassing Alhambra, Glendale, La Cañada Flintridge, Los Angeles, Monterey Park, San Marino, South Pasadena and Pasadena—could work, even with fault lines and contaminated groundwater. The Glendale News Press reports on the officials' update and the response: surprisingly, the main concern seems to be pollution (though "The traffic!" places second) that will be emitted from the approximately 4.5 mile long twin tunnels. South Pas resident Sharon Lilly told the newspaper that, “I feel that this is a real critical threat to the environment that I live in, that we all live in." Metro's chairman, Ara Najarian, doesn't like the idea either, saying recently that the $700 million set aside for the tunnels in Measure R funds should be used for public transit. As dictated by Sacramento last year, it will either be an underground 710 connector, or no connector at all. The next community meeting is Tuesday in San Marino. [Pictured: Boston's underground freeway. Image from Nicholish via Flickr]
· 710 Tunnel Outreach Supports [Glendale News Press]
· City Council Has an Opinion on the 710 Extension [Curbed LA]
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