U.S. Funds Tunnel Study

A controversial idea to build a commuter tunnel under the Santa Ana Mountains connecting Orange and Riverside counties will continue to be studied, thanks to $2 million from the federal government.

The concept has been hailed by elected officials in Riverside and San Bernardino counties as a way to ease the commute for people who work in Orange County and live in more affordable homes to the east.

But many Orange County transportation officials have shunned tunnel talk, noting that opinion polls show that voters, elected officials and environmentalists are cool to the thought of burrowing under the Cleveland National Forest.

The burst of federal funds should help keep alive the idea of building another traffic route between the counties, said Bill Vardoulis, a private Irvine civil engineer who for the past five years has pushed for three 11-mile tunnels -- one in each direction for cars, and one for trucks and utilities -- from Highway 133 in Irvine to Cajalco Road at Interstate 15 in Corona.

“It’s a step in the right direction toward recognizing that the answer to a lot of this east-west congestion is going to be a tunnel,” Vardoulis said Thursday. “We can’t go over or through wildlife reserves. This brings the best of both worlds.”

The money was included by Rep. Chris Cox (R-Newport Beach) in a $388-billion overall spending bill for the balance of fiscal year 2005, which began Oct. 1.

Cox said the money was a down payment on $14 million included in a pending transportation bill for a comprehensive study of a bi-county tunnel. Costs include work by the Army Corps of Engineers to determine suitable locations for one or more tunnels linking Orange County to an airport on the other side of the Santa Ana Mountains, possibly March Air Reserve Base or a new airport site.

Cox said several utility companies were already considering projects to expand or replace power and water lines that go over the mountains, which now could go through a tunnel.

“We want to give this idea a fresh look,” he said.

Opponents of such a project include Mike Boeck, a longtime forest resident on the Orange County side. “They should double-deck the 91 Freeway, not further fragment the forest,” he said. “We need wildlife corridors, not highways.”

Commuters traversing the two counties now crowd onto the 91, or Riverside Freeway, which cuts through Santa Ana Canyon. Some 260,000 cars a day use that stretch, a number expected to hit 450,000 by 2030.

A 2002 transportation study found that 83% of westbound drivers on that stretch were headed toward jobs in Orange County, with the rest headed to jobs in Los Angeles County.

Last year, an 18-month traffic-congestion study of the two counties was launched by the Orange County Transportation Authority and Riverside County Transportation Commission. The study is examining several options for reducing traffic on the freeway, including building a new freeway or tunnel.

The cost of a freeway is estimated at $3 billion to $6 billion..