Council to Vote on Linking Support for Rail Project, Freeway

The San Gabriel Valley Council of Governments will vote today to consider linking its support for the Alameda Corridor project to a demand that federal officials move forward with the long-delayed Long Beach Freeway extension.

The vote comes at the urging of Alhambra and other supporters of the Interstate 710 freeway project, which would extend that highway through Pasadena, South Pasadena and El Sereno.

Opponents of the freeway extension, including South Pasadena officials and activists from Pasadena, vowed Wednesday to stage a vocal protest of the proposed linkage. But their objections may be in vain because the council of governments has previously endorsed both projects.

“This is going to do nothing to help the San Gabriel Valley,” said Lorne Moore of the Pasadena-based No on 710 Committee. “If anything, it is going to get the White House mad as hell. The Alameda Corridor is one of their priorities.”

The vote is latest move in a battle between pro- and anti-freeway forces.

Last month, Alhambra filed a suit against the U.S. Department of Transportation, demanding that it sign off on an environmental impact report for the roadway project without further delay. The environmental report was completed in 1992 and awaits Federal Highway Administrator Rodney Slater’s signature.

The suit complains that federal officials have left a gap in the Long Beach Freeway for more than three decades, resulting in thousands of cars a day cutting through Alhambra streets to reach Pasadena and the Foothill Freeway. The suit also seeks to block construction of the Alameda rail corridor until mitigating alternatives, including closing of the freeway gap, are addressed.

If the Alameda Corridor goes through and the 710 gap is not resolved, north-south traffic will back up rail crossing across the valley, said Alhambra Councilwoman Barbara Messina.

South Pasadena officials, who sued 23 years ago to stop the freeway, disagree.

“Alhambra is trying to blackmail the federal government and now it wants 24 other cities to back its frivolous lawsuit,” said Jeannine Gregory, South Pasadena city clerk.

Alameda Corridor Transportation Authority officials say they do not want their project to become another area’s political pawn. “Frankly, we don’t want to be drawn into the debate over the 710 freeway,” said Gil Hicks, executive director.

“We don’t like be used as leverage.”