A Tunnel in Earthquake Country

Those of us who live in Orange County (CA) know all too well how ridiculous traffic is between Orange County and nearby Riverside County. Thanks to a mountain range between the adjacent counties, all traffic is funneled up the 91 freeway which has become on of the world's largest parking lots.

A new toll road through the foothills cut off part of that commute, but there's still a stretch of several milesbetween Anaheim Hills and Corona that just locks up - sometimes in both directions at once. I once read that due to the growth of the Inland Empire, in order to maintain an average speed of 20 miles per hour on the 91, in a few years the 91 will have to be 35 lanes wide. That gives you an idea of what we're up against around here.

Now there's talk about trying to relieve some of the congestion by building a tunnel under the mountain range and directly connecting the area where I live with Corona and Riverside. Just one small problem...besides the 25 years it will take to build...this is earthquake country:

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.

"It's absolutely absurd to have a tunnel 700 feet below ground in earthquake country," said Cathryn DeYoung, mayor of Laguna Niguel and a vocal opponent. "I mean, would you want to be in that tunnel?"

Planners are due to make a decision in mid November on whether to pursue the project.

The proposal for what would be the world's second-longest road tunnel would create a new path between sprawling inland suburbs and Orange County, which has become one of Southern California's fastest-growing job centers.

Such a project could cost up to $9 billion and take 25 years.

Of course, some folks are against any kind of building, and instead insist that Southern Californians have to get used to mass transit. Bunk. I'll give up my car when you pry my cold dead hands off the steering wheel.

They're going to have to do something, because even on weekends it can get unbelievably tough to cover those few miles.