Proposed: Six 50-ft tunnel exhaust stacks at the entrance to Old Town Pasadena

Yes, indeed, they’ve been talking about the above-ground freeway for years, since the 1950s. More recently, there’s been a push for a tunnel. How many commuters would actually use the tunnel, or is the tunnel for freight trucks coming from Long Beach? (The 710 freeway is, after all, called “Alt. Truck Route”.)  Now that the Environmental Impact Report is out, it’s time for the public’s voice to be heard. Did you know:

• For those exiting the 710 at Valley, 80% of drivers would not reach their destination via proposed tunnel.
• Metro/CalTrans expects to charge a $6-12  toll per car one way.  People will  avoid the tunnel and use surface streets, exacerbating the traffic on our streets.  (CalTrans Metro estimates 60,000 more cars a day on the streets.)
• For Alhambrans to actually take the tunnel, we would have to catch it south of the 10 freeway, NOT at Valley which is 4 miles further north.  Please read Fact v. Fiction and make up your own mind about the tunnel.
• There would be two air ventilators at either end of the tunnel, none in the middle. Since the ‘scrubbers’ cannot clean the cancer-causing fine particular matter from diesel trucks, Alhambra would directly bear the brunt of that pollution .
• The City of Alhambra spent $141,726 on its 2015 and 2014 “Close the Gap” days (aka: Gridlock Day). Find out more of how Alhambra is spending taxpayer money on  promoting the tunnel, even before the draft of the $42-million-dollar, 26,000-page Environmental Impact Report came out.
• The City of Alhambra has spent $133,714 on the banners on Fremont so far.

CalTrans/Metro is asking the public what they want.  Read this page about the Environmental Impact Report and the posts below, then submit your comment to them before Aug. 5. After that, CalTrans/Metro will make its decision of its alternatives to the above-ground freeway to build. When you comment on the EIR, be sure to address issues, problems or questions about the document, and ask questions, which will be answered back to you. Check here for tips on how to do this most effectively.