He Sees 10-Mile Tunnel in O.C.’s Future

Bill Vardoulis of Corona del Mar freely admits he suffers from an acute case of tunnel vision. For three years, the 64-year-old mechanical engineer, former Irvine mayor and transportation wonk has exhausted his spare time on a crusade to build the longest subterranean highway in the United States.

On paper, the $3.5-billion tunnel complex -- with room for trains, trucks, cars and utilities -- runs for about 10 miles under the rugged Cleveland National Forest. The tollway would provide a second major link between Orange and Riverside counties, two fast-growing neighbors struggling to improve the chronically congested freeway that connects them.

As Vardoulis sees it, digging is the only way out. Traffic, he says, will eventually overwhelm the Riverside Freeway despite planned widenings. Two-lane Ortega Highway in south Orange County is too constrained by narrow canyons to expand. And a conventional highway over the Santa Ana Mountains might be impractical from engineering and environmental standpoints.

“We can’t rely on taxes or Caltrans anymore,” says Vardoulis, who is convinced that unless something is done in the next decade, the region will find itself in gridlock. “We need to look outside the box. If we don’t, it’s just a matter of time before businesses and jobs leave the area or refuse to locate here.”

Since 1999, Vardoulis has used vacation time and put his personal life on hold to take his idea to dozens of government officials, more than 2,000 citizens and scores of community groups on both sides of the county line. He’s appeared at the posh Center Club near South Coast Plaza and the McDonald’s in Perris.

His company -- BV Engineering, with offices in Irvine and Corona -- has spent roughly $100,000 for promotions and preliminary studies. He’s even consulted tunnel experts at Kellogg, Brown and Root, the construction arm of Halliburton Inc., a Dallas-based energy giant. He describes his interest as a matter of public service rather than private gain -- he doesn’t see his company necessarily taking part in the work should the tunnel be built.

“Vardoulis is no fly-by-night guy. He is a very credible and honest figure,” said Jim Richards, a civil engineer for Kellogg, Brown and Root, who has worked on tunnels for more than 20 years. “This looks like a very viable project.”

The proposed corridor starts at Interstate 15 and Cajalco Road in Riverside County, then dips under the steep eastern face of the Santa Ana Mountains before surfacing 10 miles later on the other side of the county line. It crosses Santiago Canyon Road and ends just east of Irvine where the Laguna Freeway meets the Foothill toll road.

Vardoulis envisions three 45-foot-diameter tunnels that would go 2,000 to 3,000 feet below the surface at their deepest. Two would have roads in each direction, power lines, fiber optic cables and oil pipelines. The third would have high-speed light-rail lines, a rail conveyance for trucks and a 12-foot-diameter water pipeline.

To keep potentially harmful exhaust out of the Cleveland National Forest, the two automobile tunnels would have an elaborate system of filters and ducts to clean emissions and release them into the air at both ends.

Financing, he says, could come from companies, the sale of bonds to investors, tolls from drivers and fees paid by utilities and oil companies. Preliminary estimates, he says, show that tolls and utility payments alone could provide more than $300 million a year in revenue, enough to pay off the project’s debt eventually.

Such a tunnel, Vardoulis says, will help accommodate the region’s growth and give Riverside County the second link to Orange County it has always sought without disturbing the Cleveland National Forest. Riverside County, with many of its residents heavily dependent on jobs in Orange County, is expected to almost double its population to 3 million by 2020.

With the defeat of a commercial airport at the former El Toro Marine base, Vardoulis also says the tunnel will be needed to move people and goods to and from Ontario International Airport, in San Bernardino County, as well as cargo hubs planned for the former Norton Air Force Base, also in that county, and March Air Reserve Base in Riverside County.

“This will not be easy,” Vardoulis said. “It is going to be tough, but it could solve many things all at once.”

The idea of building tunnels under the Cleveland National Forest isn’t new. The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California proposed one in 1990 as a way to move water from Lake Mathews in Riverside County. Almost eight years ago, the Southern California Assn. of Governments included a tunnel option in the agency’s Regional Transportation Plan. Funding and political support have lagged for both, however.

Frustrated by a lack of regional transportation planning during the 1990s, Vardoulis became interested in reviving the tunnel idea after reviewing the water district’s geological studies of the region. Testing indicates that the formations under the Santa Ana Mountains are mostly rock and contain little water -- good for tunneling.

But Vardoulis admits that he must overcome more than engineering challenges to get the giant corridor built. Finding investors for such an expensive undertaking will be a major hurdle. Toll roads have fallen out of favor in the state Legislature, and many government officials remain neutral, although they say an underground route might be considered in the future, along with competing options.

Local environmental groups, such as the Sierra Club, are protective of the Cleveland National Forest and want to see all remedies tried on the Riverside Freeway first. Polling by the Orange County Transportation Authority indicates that most Orange County residents feel similarly.

“We support solutions for the 91 corridor and oppose anything under or through the Cleveland National Forest,” said Jay Matchett, co-chairman of the Sierra Club’s Santa Ana Mountains Task Force. “We need better planning to solve the imbalance of housing and jobs between Riverside and Orange counties.”

Another major factor is the politically influential Irvine Co., the largest real estate developer in Orange County. A major player in transportation projects for 20 years, the Irvine Co. has been openly skeptical of proposed routes through the forest, especially a tunnel.

Among other things, company officials fear they would have to pay for road improvements because people would use the underground route to head to jobs in north Irvine. The company is planning 17 million square feet of office space there.

Last summer, the Irvine Co. proposed building a 10-mile highway along a busy railroad right-of-way that parallels the Riverside Freeway. It would run from Interstate 15 in Riverside County to the Foothill toll road in northeast Orange County.

Other skeptics question the tunnel’s cost, noting that it would exhaust all the funds from Orange County’s transportation sales tax if the tunnel were a government project. Measure M, which was approved by county voters, is a half-cent tax designed to raise $3.1 billion by the end of 2010.

“The idea should be looked at, but it is going to take some deep pockets to finance it,” said Stan Oftelie, executive director of the Orange County Business Council. “There are a number of serious transportation problems right now. Other projects, such as light rail, might provide more relief than a tunnel. It could become a priority issue.”

But friends and colleagues of Vardoulis say that if anyone can get the tunnel built, he can.

Vardoulis has long worked on local transportation issues, both as a government official and member of the Orange County chapter of the Building Industry Assn. He was among the first toll road advocates in the county and devised ways to finance the San Joaquin Hills, Foothill and Eastern tollways.

Vardoulis, with master’s degrees in engineering and business administration, was an Irvine councilman and mayor. He served on the Irvine Transportation Commission and the precursor of the Orange County Transportation Authority.

In October, the board of the Municipal Water District of Orange County endorsed the proposal and promised to urge OCTA, the Riverside County Transportation Commission and the Metropolitan Water District to support the idea.

“Right now,” Vardoulis said, “I am operating half on engineering and half on hope. I wish there was a way to make everyone happy, but that is very hard.”