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| It's an idea whose time had come at least half a
century ago. In 1955, J.C. Ells, who was a member of
Adams and Ells Engineering in El Monte, published a book
titled "Mill Valley Highway." The proposed Ells
Highway was designed to cut directly through the San
Gabriel Mountains to link Palmdale and La Canada with a
high-speed freeway between the Antelope Valley and Los
Angeles to roughly 25 miles. |
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| The dream of building a tunnel route through the San
Gabriel Mountains to link the Antelope Valley and the Los
Angeles basin has been discussed repeatedly over the past
half century, but the concept has always run into that
enormous speed bump - money. But now a new
pragmatic proposal has been brought forth by the Reason
Foundation, a Los Angeles based think tank, that could
make the tunnel route proposal become a reality. |
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| In the 21st century, toll booths are no longer
required. Motorists driving 65 mph and bearing barcoded
bumper stickers on their vehicles can be photographed and
billed at the end of the month. The Reason Foundation
report provides a preliminary matrix for "a $2.3
billion tunnel linking Palmdale with Glendale beneath the
Angeles National Forest. With value-priced tolls to keep
traffic free-flowing at rush hours, it would cut 45
minutes to an hour off the time between North County and
downtown Los Angeles. This would make it far more
practical to develop serious airline service at the
Palmdale International Airport site (the last remaining
alternative to meet the region's air service
needs.)" |
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| The proposal would involve about 5 miles of surface
road plus two tunnels; one about 5 miles long and the
other about 11 miles long - a total of 21 miles. By 2030,
experts expect that California's population will grow
from 34 million to 50 million, with most of those new
residents settling near Los Angeles, San Diego and San
Francisco. |
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| The tunnel could be open and collecting tolls
by 2015, the analysts said. The average
California motorist wastes about 96 hours sitting in
traffic a year. it's estimated that Antelope Valley now
has about 52,380 commuters driving in heavy congestion on
the AV Freeway mornings and afternoons. Some people may
gasp at the thought that drivers would be charged between
$8 and $9 for using the tunnel route. |
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| But if a driver's time is worth $20 an hour, many
people could save two hours of round-trip travel time
(worth $40) by using the high-way hole through mountains.
He or she could make the round trip for $18 and gain an
extra 120 minutes in family time at home. The concept is
not only feasible, but could be achieved in the next
decade through a public-private partnership. |
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| Large construction companies would be eager to get
into this program, which could yield considerable profits
and provide California citizens with tremendous time
savings and a more stress-free lifestyle. We support the
plan wholeheartedly and urge California leaders at all
levels to start their engines on this, a major solution
to ease the Southland's horrifically deteriorating
transportation gridlock. |
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