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Re: California High Speed Rail Authority wants to test-drill under the Angeles National Forest
Author: BOB2
Date: 09-28-2015 - 07:36
There are so many advanced degree's in geology are commenting on this article, that it's hard to believe that Cal Tech didn't hire some of you earthquake experts...? I'll just give my old pal Dr. Lucy Jones a call and let her know you're all available.
We actually build tunnels in earthquake country all of the time, all over the world, and we've done it here. By the way, we've started doing it in 1876, and that tunnel is still standing, and in operation today, despite the last two earthquakes which brought down the freeway above it.
And, of course there are always the comments by the usual conspiracy theorists, which are just that..... as I like to say, the sky is always falling somewhere....
The cost of these "expanded" tunnel routes is another matter. Since when I first looked a route adjacent to Lopez Canyon Dump, via an alignment along Kagle Canyon for the 5/14 bypass toll road with ACS Dragados back in 2005, this route has looked very feasible. At least for a much shorter tunnel segment between Lang and the end of the 118 next to the Lopez Canyon dump. The routes and the amount of tunneling identified in this story, would be much longer, and be much more costly, than for just that shorter, sensible, and doable segment, however.
In my more recent conversations with certain elected officials from this area, I recommended, that we go along the 118 ROW on the surface from SF Road to Kagel Canyon (since this would be in the high Tujunga basin ground water) and would not use a costly unnecessary tunnel for the approach. And, I would come out and attach to the previously studied alignment at Lang. The cost of tunneling these much longer routes is a.) unnecessary to shorten the route and avoid Santa Clarita, and b) would be extremely costly compared to a much shorter tunnel under Saugus Mountain, and surface connections to it.
There is still interest in the toll road proposal, and thus such a route would also be financially feasible, and could be privately financed, using toll revenues from cars and trucks, to build a dual bored tunnel, with an upper level for cars and trucks, with a lower level for HSR, water lines and communications lines, at a profit to investors.
This is one of the reasons that the President left this corridor through a small corner of the Angeles National Forest out of the National Monument designation (and he took a pile of crap from some environmental groups for this) as that would have made any such project, either a toll tunnel, or the HSR connection, much more difficult.
As to this specific bloated and costly proposal, it doesn't take a conspiracy theory to explain. We have a grossly mismanaged and poorly planning political project with the CHSRA, where we have "chosen" to put the politically connected contractor's in charge of developing, overseeing and billing for their own work, so such bloated and costly proposals to line their pockets are always going to be the result.
I only wish I had 20% of what they've almost entirely wasted on CHSRA (except for the downtown Fresno grade seps, which needed it anyway) for the grade separations, capacity, and operational improvements we really need on LOSSAN..... You'd think you were in Switzerland....
We actually build tunnels in earthquake country all of the time, all over the world, and we've done it here. By the way, we've started doing it in 1876, and that tunnel is still standing, and in operation today, despite the last two earthquakes which brought down the freeway above it.
And, of course there are always the comments by the usual conspiracy theorists, which are just that..... as I like to say, the sky is always falling somewhere....
The cost of these "expanded" tunnel routes is another matter. Since when I first looked a route adjacent to Lopez Canyon Dump, via an alignment along Kagle Canyon for the 5/14 bypass toll road with ACS Dragados back in 2005, this route has looked very feasible. At least for a much shorter tunnel segment between Lang and the end of the 118 next to the Lopez Canyon dump. The routes and the amount of tunneling identified in this story, would be much longer, and be much more costly, than for just that shorter, sensible, and doable segment, however.
In my more recent conversations with certain elected officials from this area, I recommended, that we go along the 118 ROW on the surface from SF Road to Kagel Canyon (since this would be in the high Tujunga basin ground water) and would not use a costly unnecessary tunnel for the approach. And, I would come out and attach to the previously studied alignment at Lang. The cost of tunneling these much longer routes is a.) unnecessary to shorten the route and avoid Santa Clarita, and b) would be extremely costly compared to a much shorter tunnel under Saugus Mountain, and surface connections to it.
There is still interest in the toll road proposal, and thus such a route would also be financially feasible, and could be privately financed, using toll revenues from cars and trucks, to build a dual bored tunnel, with an upper level for cars and trucks, with a lower level for HSR, water lines and communications lines, at a profit to investors.
This is one of the reasons that the President left this corridor through a small corner of the Angeles National Forest out of the National Monument designation (and he took a pile of crap from some environmental groups for this) as that would have made any such project, either a toll tunnel, or the HSR connection, much more difficult.
As to this specific bloated and costly proposal, it doesn't take a conspiracy theory to explain. We have a grossly mismanaged and poorly planning political project with the CHSRA, where we have "chosen" to put the politically connected contractor's in charge of developing, overseeing and billing for their own work, so such bloated and costly proposals to line their pockets are always going to be the result.
I only wish I had 20% of what they've almost entirely wasted on CHSRA (except for the downtown Fresno grade seps, which needed it anyway) for the grade separations, capacity, and operational improvements we really need on LOSSAN..... You'd think you were in Switzerland....
