Desert-to-L.A. Tunnel Idea Surfaces Again

Call it zany. Call it logical. Either way, Palmdale officials and a high desert transportation coalition are exploring the concept of building one of the world’s longest auto tunnels through the San Gabriel Mountains.

The segmented 15.5-mile tunnel would stretch through the mountain range on a shortcut from Palmdale to La Canada Flintridge. It would provide the fastest, most direct commute between Los Angeles and the high desert, as well as Las Vegas and Mammoth Lakes.

Transit engineers for decades have pondered ways to conquer Los Angeles’ mountain barrier. Boring holes through the rock had seemed a prospective solution more than 50 years ago, but the idea hit a wall. Now it’s back. The North County Transportation Coalition, consisting of representatives of Palmdale, Lancaster and unincorporated Antelope Valley areas, say a tunnel could finally deliver some relief from worsening congestion for desert commuters.

The notion is logical enough to have piqued the interest of Lockheed engineers, and zany enough that it may have inspired an episode of “The Beverly Hillbillies” TV show.

Palmdale Mayor Jim Ledford said that within 20 years, average peak hour traffic on the Antelope Valley Freeway will creep at 24 mph, requiring an hour and 41 minutes to travel 41 miles from Palmdale to the San Fernando Valley.

“We need to be thinking what we can we do to ease the congestion that we know is coming,” Ledford said.

The coalition revived the tunnel idea several years ago after state and federal traffic engineers suggested adding toll lanes to the Antelope Valley Freeway, Ledford said.

“We weren’t really hot on the idea of toll lanes--Lexus lanes, we call them--because we all pay a lot in transportation costs already, specifically gas taxes,” said Ledford, a member of the coalition.

A shorter route, Ledford said, could offset costs to drivers. And drilling holes rather than building a surface road could lessen the impact on the Angeles National Forest, he said. “The logical alternative seems the concept of tunnels.”

Cutting the route in half--through the mountains--would not only take pressure off the freeway, he added, but also offer a quicker way to Palmdale Airport as an alternative to Los Angeles International Airport. Best of all, some advocates say, a speedier route could create jobs and recharge housing development in the Antelope Valley.

So the Palmdale City Council has hired VRPA Technologies of San Diego, at a cost of $12,000, to determine whether a tunnel is financially feasible. The city must also examine the difficulties of drilling through earthquake zones and protecting the mountain environment, Ledford said.

In the meantime, the idea already is taking hits.

La Canada Flintridge officials wonder about the traffic the tunnel would draw to their city, a mountain gateway off the Glendale and Foothill freeways.

“We’re looking into it,” said Steve Castellanos, the city’s public works director.

Although the City Council has not taken a stance against the tunnel, he said, “We of course would want to be in the loop on any discussions.”

Environmentalists say the costs of shielding the Angeles National Forest from the ravages of a tunnel project would be enormous. David Czamanske, a Sierra Club expert on the San Gabriels, described the rocky range as “like a huge sponge,” filled with water that feeds springs and rivers.

He labeled the tunnel concept “totally ridiculous” and the Palmdale study “a waste of taxpayers’ money.”

But even with all the obstacles, tunnels can be the smart way to go, said Steve Glaser, a geotechnical engineer at UC Berkeley. “Tunnels work very well and are more cost-effective” than surface routes, he said, adding that they are usually safer in earthquakes, which cause greater damage above ground.

The same pros and cons are being debated in Riverside County, where another tunnel is proposed for the Cleveland National Forest. It would be designed to uncork bottlenecks for commuters working in Orange County.

Tunnel boosters in Palmdale say construction costs could be recouped from tolls, just like those that are paying for privately funded highways in Orange County.

A toll tunnel was originally proposed in 1953 by a civil engineering consultant to El Monte, Joe C. Ells. At the time, newspaper reports quoted Ells as saying the route “would bring Palmdale to within . . . practically commuting distance of Los Angeles.” He also said the tunnel would be a “new escape route” in the event of an enemy attack, not too farfetched for a city then possessed with building bomb shelters.

Tolls could recover the tunnel’s cost, then estimated at $200 million, Ells suggested. Critics, however, said it could take 10 to 15 years to complete.

The proposal did intrigue Lockheed engineers, who wanted a quicker commute for workers in Burbank and the desert, said Steve Williams, Palmdale public works director. He said he interviewed “several old-timers” about the company’s tunnel plans, which apparently disappeared after Lockheed closed its Burbank Skunk Works plant.

Lost, too, are records sent by Ells to the old State Division of Highways. California Department of Transportation archivist Laurel Clark said the idea probably “gathered dust on a desk until it was thrown out.”

“The California Highway Commission was not the least interested,” said Ells’ son, William C. Ells, a retired civil engineer who worked with his father on the concept. “My dad’s proposal was absolutely rejected. They thought it was a worthless idea.”

It might have had some value as comic relief, though.

Though no link has been proved, Caltrans spokesman Dennis Trujillo said Ells’ proposal reminds him of a “Beverly Hillbillies” episode. In a 1970 TV scenario, Jed Clampett prepares to underwrite a con man’s scheme to drill a channel through the mountains and install giant fans to draw off the smog. “Get this,” Trujillo chuckles, “he tells Jed to make the check out to the group’s acronym: CASH.”

The concept was revived again, seriously this time, in a 1999 report by the Southern California Assn. of Governments, which put the cost at $1.8 billion. The study was conducted by Parsons Brinckerhoff, a New York firm considered a world leader in tunnel construction.

The report suggested twin tunnels, each in two segments, with a stretch of surface highway connecting the segments. Of the entire 21-mile route, 15.5 miles would be underground. The longest portion of tunnel would be up to half a mile deep and stretch 10.8 miles.

The project would join the ranks of super tunnels such as Norway’s 15.2-mile Laerdal and the 10.2-mile St. Gotthard in the Alps.

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Times research librarians Ron Weaver and Robin Mayper contributed to this story.