Background:
On December 11, 2013 at the California Transportation
Committee meeting in Riverside, Doug Failing (then Head of
Highway Projects for Metro) and Carrie Bowen (Caltrans
District 7 Director) stated during public testimony that a
Cost Benefit Analysis would be conducted concurrently with the
SR-710 Draft EIR and would be released at the same time as the
SR-710 Draft EIR.
Anthony Portantino is asking the tough questions.
As a
Council member, Mayor and Assembly member Anthony
Portantino has been working with South Pasadena and the
No 710 movement for two decades. His many strongly
worded letters, public statements and public testimony
opposing the 710 tunnel have been instrumental in
keeping the issue before the public and gaining the
attention of elected officials.
Here is his
latest effort on behalf of the public.
See letter below to the Big Four.
Thank you Anthony
Portantino!!
Hon. Anthony J. Portantino
Ret. State Assemblymember, 44th AD
March 19, 2015
Ms. Lucetta
Dunn Hon.
Eric Garcetti
Chair Chair
California Transportation Commission Metropolitan
Transportation Authority
RE: SR-710 Cost Benefit Analysis & Funding/Construction Cost Model
Dear
Honorable Chairs,
On March 6th Caltrans and MTA released the 26,625-page,
long-delayed draft EIR/EIS for the SR-710 corridor. Many government officials and activists who
have been part of this process for decades were opposed to proceeding with an
Environmental Impact Study because to do so violated the spirit of the original
agreement between MTA/Caltrans/SCAG and the communities in the SR-710
corridor. When discussion about a tunnel
proposal for the SR-710 corridor were initiated, stakeholders were expressly
told that no Environmental Impact Study would be conducted until such time as a
SR-710 tunnel was deemed to be a feasible project.
I am asking for your help in securing the Cost Benefit
Analysis for the proposed SR-710 tunnel for public review. Although many efforts were made and proposals
suggested to require MTA and Caltrans to conduct a Cost Benefit Analysis and/or
comprehensive feasibility study before moving forward, no such study was
conducted and all such efforts failed. It didn’t seem to matter to MTA or to Caltrans
that moving forward with a $37 million Environmental Impact Study put
significant and limited tax payer dollars at risk of being wasted on a project
that potentially did not pencil out.
At the Dec. 11, 2013 meeting of the California Transportation
Commission in Riverside, MTA’s (then) Head of Highway Programs, Doug Failing, and
Caltrans District 7 Director Carrie Bowen stated during public testimony and
for the record that a Cost Benefit Analysis would be conducted concurrently with the Environmental
Impact Study and would be released concurrently with the DEIR/EIS. Both indicated that the Draft Project Report would contain the Cost Benefit Analysis. Fourteen
months later, the DEIR has been released and the Draft Project Report is now
available, but sadly, neither contains the Cost Benefit Analysis promised to
the CTC and to the region. Many of us who
were in attendance at the CTC meeting are now stunned and angry that Ms. Bowen
and Mr. Failing stated for the record that The Cost Benefit Analysis would be
forthcoming and yet it is not available for public review. I realize that there are new leaders of the
MTA since this project began, but Caltrans, as the lead agency for the study,
is ultimately responsible for producing this analysis. I join with many others
to be hopeful that changes in process and execution are on the horizon, but it
is causing alarm that the Cost Benefit Analysis continues to be a difficult
document to produce.
I am respectfully requesting your help in determining what remedies
are at your disposal to facilitate the release of the Cost Benefit Analysis. At the very least, the DEIR comment period
should be stayed/extended until such time as this document is produced.
From day one, many of
us have been asking some very simple -- yet important -- questions:
- How much is this project going to cost?
- How many cars and trucks are going to use it?
- Does this project make economic and planning sense?
Unfortunately, MTA and Caltrans have
not fully answered these basic questions as promised.
In regard to the cost estimates used
in the DEIR, It is extremely important to note and highlight that Caltrans/Metro
is currently studying a bored tunnel project of the same diameter and length as
the SR-710 tunnel (59’ and 9 miles) in the Sepulveda Pass. Although Caltrans/Metro claims to have used
the cost of the Alaskan Way Viaduct replacement tunnel in Seattle (currently
under construction) of approximately $1 billion per bored mile to estimate the
costs for both the proposed Sepulveda Pass and SR-710 tunnels, the Sepulveda
Pass tunnel is estimated at $10 billion while SR-710 tunnel’s cost has been
reported at $5.65 billion. No
explanation for this discrepancy has been provided. Experience and common sense tell us that the
cost of most infrastructure projects increases over time, and that infrastructure
megaprojects are rarely completed on budget and on schedule. Given the length
of time this project will take to complete, lessons learned from Seattle and
the cost modeling used by Caltrans/Metro for a second, similar project, it
borders on preposterous that Caltrans/Metro would cut in half the estimated
cost for the SR-710 tunnel when their own reasoning demonstrates that it is at
least twice that amount.
In conclusion, we are now a decade
into the project and we do not have an accurate financial picture of the
complete cost or benefit of this project.
This omission or oversight needs to be corrected. If MTA/Caltrans need more time to deliver the
items promised to the CTC and those in attendance in Riverside, the DEIR
comment period should be suspended until such time as a Cost Benefit Analysis
is completed and released for public review. To do anything else sanctions
publically misleading the CTC and local taxpayer to be irreparably harmed and
disrespected.
Respectfully,

Hon. Anthony J.
Portantino
Ret. State
Assemblymember
Cc: Brian Kelly
Malcolm Dougherty