Pasadena Star News, April 14, 2015: http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/general-news/20150414/pasadena-city-council-opposes-710-freeway-tunnel
Sign the Petition (click on the trucks)
Pasadena City Council formally OPPOSE 710 tunnel – now it’s Alhambra’s turn!
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Info Guide to the Draft Environmental Impact Report (EIR)
Check out this pdf. Navigating 710 EIR_presentation to help you write your public comment.
CalTrans/Metro is taking public comment until July 2015. After that point, they will make the decision about what to do with the 710-extension. Make sure you have your voice heard!
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Alhambra Councilwoman Barbara Messina’s “virgin air” comment
Say what!?!?
On March 9, 2015 on the air, Barbara Messina (again) claimed if CalTrans builds the toll freeway tunnel, all the pollution accumulated from the port trucks and cars would be purified from the scrubbers, releasing ‘virgin air’ into the atmosphere.
Check out what she’s been up to here and listen to “AirTalk” to hear for yourself.
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Still not satisfied with the “alternatives” to a surface freeway?
Mon. April 13, 6:30 pm (tentative date) Pasadena City Council will meet at the Pasadena Convention Center to discuss and vote on a 6th Alternative – a people’s alternative.
- Pasadena’s local preference as an Alternative for the SR-710 project
- Resolution opposing the SR-710 Tunnel(s)
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Where to start with the EIR?
Here are 3 pages from the section, Tunnel Excavation Report, pages 6 (map) & 361-362.
Each Tunnel:
4.2 miles of bored tunnel
.7 miles of cut and cover tunnel
1.4 miles of at-grade segments.
Total: 6.3 miles
Map of the dual-bore tunnels (see Excavation Report + map pp.361-362)
South Portal: It will begin immediately North of Hellman Ave.–In Alhambra and NOT in Los Angeles. However, the at-grade section will begin just south of the 10 Freeway.–in Monterey Park.
There will be an entrance & exit to the south 710 from Valley Blvd.–as it is now. (No entrance/exit from the tunnels to Valley Blvd.) In other words, it will not change the traffic pattern of today and may, in fact, increase traffic on Valley Blvd.
The map shows an interchange with the 710/10 freeways. I am assuming this means motorists will be able to travel north into the 710 tunnel and exit to the 10 while traveling south.
North Portal: The portal will be immediately south of Green St.
There will be NO SURFACE STREET entrances or exits. There will, however, be 6 freeway entrances/exits:
to/from the 134 (2)
to/from the N. 210 (La Canada) (2)
to/from the E. 210 (Pasadena) (2)
This is going to make for some exciting traffic patterns at the next (surface street) entrance/exit of the above freeways.
Section 3.1.1 Bored Tunnels
The outside diameter of the final lined tunnels will be abt. 58 1/2′. However, the outside diameter of the excavated tunnels will be abt. 60′. (I believe this is the number we should use).
Section 3.1.3 Construction Portals
This is the area that is needed and must be excavated just to get the tunnel boring machines and construction materials in place before boring can begin.
Media on 710 – after EIR publication
Pasadena Now: WPRA Finds Caltrans’ SR-710 Draft EIR to be “Grossly Inadequate”, Aug. 7, 2015
These experts found inadequacies in almost all of the DEIR’s sections, including growth, tunnel boring machine failure, land use, community impacts, traffic, transportation, air quality, noise, hydrology, water quality, geology, energy, and more. The team found that, from its inception, the SR-710 Study environmental process has been improperly conducted in a manner to justify and sustain a decision already made: the freeway tunnel as the preferred alternative.
Pasadena Star News: (April 14, 2015): Pasadena City Council Opposes 710 Freeway Tunnel: http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/general-news/20150414/pasadena-city-council-opposes-710-freeway-tunnel
LA Streetsblog: (March 10, 2015): http://la.streetsblog.org/2015/03/10/media-bashes-710-alternatives-the-transit-ones-anyway/ (This article lays all cards on the table.)
Around Town: Tunnel Proposal Lacks True Vision (March 12, 2015) – LaCanada Valley Sun: http://www.lacanadaonline.com/opinion/tn-vsl-around-town-tunnel-proposal-lacks-true-vision-20150312,0,965555.story
Air Talk with Larry Mantle, KPCC (March 9, 2015): http://www.scpr.org/programs/airtalk/2015/03/09/41887/stakeholders-debate-next-phase-of-the-710-freeway/#comment-1897423771
This first appeared on a map in 1937… After 78 years, you may have to ask yourself, maybe it was a bad idea in the first place. -Donald Voss, Mayor Pro Tem, City of La Cañada Flintridge
LA Times: http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-710-freeway-report-20150306-story.html KPCC radio: http://www.scpr.org/news/2015/03/06/50226/busway-option-to-close-710-freeway-gap-would-cost/
Contra Costa Times: http://www.contracostatimes.com/news/ci_27660300/long-awaited-enviromental-study-710-freeway-tunnel-due
Pasadena Weekly – respond at the bottom http://www.pasadenaweekly.com/cms/story/detail/redirecting_traffic/14221/?utm_source=3-5-15&utm_campaign=03%2F05%2F2015&utm_medium=email
The EIR – check it out and submit your comments!
You can view the Environmental Impact Report (EIR) here but there is a hard copy at the Alhambra public library, with a 40 page summary. It is also available to view at other locations. One of our members has read the summary and is, like many, suspicious of the claim that it will only take 5 years to build, among other claims on the EIR. The EIR itself has 26,625 pages, so start reviewing it now and submit your comments before the July deadline.
From Metro website: The public is encouraged to submit written or electronic comments prior to July 6, 2015 :
- U.S. Mail to Garrett Damrath, Caltrans District 7, Division of Environmental Planning, 100 S. Main St., MS-16, Los Angeles, CA 90012
- Please be aware: Metro’s online form doesn’t work very well and may not be reliable.
IMPORTANT: Read this page before you send in your comment.
Public comment on EIR until July 6, 2015
The Environmental Impact Report for the SR-710 North transportation network was released on March 6, 2015 by the California Department of Transportation. The comment period is 120 days, with the last opportunity for public comment being July 6, 2015. Here are the dates:
Tuesday, April 14 – 5 pm – 9pm Map Viewing 5 pm – 6 pm Public Hearing 6 pm – 9 pm Pasadena Convention Center 300 East Green Street Pasadena, CA 91101
Wednesday, May 6, 2015 at the La Cañada High School auditorium, 4463 Oak Grove Drive, La Cañada-Flintridge, Calif. 91011 with map viewing 5 p.m. -6 p.m. and public hearing 6 p.m. – 9 p.m.
Thursday, May 7, 2015 at the Los Angeles Christian Pr.esbyterian Church, 2241 N. Eastern Avenue, Los Angeles, Calif. 90032 with map viewing 5 p.m. -6 p.m. and public hearing 6 p.m. -9 p.m.
A 120-day public comment period began March 6 and ends July 6, 2015.
Read “710 Extension: Get Metro to answer your questions“, KPCC April 10, 2015
Metro intends to send mailers to Businesses and Households, as per their March TAC study powerpoint.
Letter to Pasadena Star News
710 Freeway would be complex and carcinogenic
The 710 is carcinogenic
The 710 Freeway is an exponentially complex issue that would take more than one entire issue of this newspaper to begin to address. Consequently, I will only refer to a one issue.
In a recent column in your paper, Gary Toebben and two other authors say, “pollution generated by the freeway gap doesn’t stay put, affecting the whole region.” Reality dictates Gary’s lens needs to open to a wide angle. The 710 gap lies in the Los Angeles basin. The “pollution that doesn’t stay put” is generated by the greater L.A. area, not the gap. The prevailing winds blow from the ocean in a northeasterly direction, sweeping all the pollution from greater L.A. to the San Gabriel Valley, the home of the gap.
On the contrary, closing the gap will only worsen our San Gabriel Valley pollution by bringing in the trucks that run on diesel that will emit lung disease-causing carcinogenic noxious fumes. To counter the one-sided information Gary identifies, learn more by going to alhambransagainst710.com and no710.com.
— Gloria Valladolid, Alhambra
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Alt. Solutions
http://connectingpasadena.squarespace.com
This empty freeway ditch needlessly divides our city, cutting off the Old Pasadena Business District on the east from the Ambassador Auditorium, Maranatha Campus and the rest of West Pasadena. The CPP, a citizen driven initiative, aims to develop a draft Master Plan for this 35 acre strip of land flanking the 710 stub from Union south to California. CPP’s goal is to engage our community to determine how best to revitalize and beautify this dead space.
http://no710.com/_better_solutions_ls/2-arterial-improvements/mmlb62513.pdf
Multi-mode low build alternative: Residents within the cities of South Pasadena, Pasadena, Alhambra, and El Sereno in Los Angeles claim the Multi-Mode Low Build Alternative is a better strategy to move people and goods in the L.A. Basin than the proposed 710 Freeway North Extension. This preferred plan will create locals jobs, keep neighborhoods intact, and cost considerably less..
The Freight Shuttle was initially designed at the Texas Transportation Institute for the sole purpose of finding a low-emission alternative to moving freight and to relieve congestion created by trucks in heavy freight/travel corridors. The Freight Shuttle moves truck trailers and containers via transporters (think people-movers/monorails) in the medians of highways or other rights-of-way over distances of up to 500 miles on emission-free, electric-powered guideway systems. There is no new “gee whiz” technology involved. The privately funded Freight Shuttle is based on a patented application of existing technologies. Freight Shuttle International has assembled an impressive team of designers, guideway/bridge builders, transporter engineers and construction contractors to create the first cost-effective, energy efficient, environmentally friendly freight transport system.
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Responsible Alhambrans Against the 710 