BILL ANALYSIS
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair
545 (Cedillo)
Hearing Date: 05/11/2009 Amended: 04/20/2009
Consultant: Mark McKenzie Policy Vote: T&H 9-0
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BILL SUMMARY: SB 545 would require any proposed extension of
the I-710 freeway from its existing terminus to the I-210
freeway, as specified, to be constructed using tunnel-boring
technology.
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Fiscal Impact (in thousands)
Major Provisions 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 Fund
Limiting construction options potentially hundreds of
millions in cost Special*
pressures to the extent that a less
expensive
option is available and feasible
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*State Highway Account
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STAFF COMMENTS: This bill may meet the criteria for referral to
the Suspense File.
Existing law establishes State Highway Route 710 (I-710) from
Highway 1 to I-210 in Pasadena. The 4.5 mile segment between
the City of Los Angeles border just north of Interstate 10 and
the I-210 freeway in Pasadena has never been constructed due to
vehement community opposition. Over nearly fifty years,
alternative concepts have been proposed and evaluated to
complete the I-710 freeway and Caltrans has purchased around 450
properties in the corridor. To date, none of the previously
proposed and evaluated surface alternatives has successfully
addressed community concerns. These traditional freeway
conceptual alignments would have traversed highly developed
urbanized neighborhoods in Los Angeles, Alhambra, South
Pasadena, and Pasadena. The Department of Transportation
(Caltrans) and the Los Angeles County Metropolitan
Transportation Authority (MTA) are currently studying
geophysical data to determine the feasibility of a bored tunnel
project to complete the I-710 corridor. The study will be
completed in the fall of this year, and after that benchmark is
met, Caltrans and MTA will decide whether to proceed with the
environmental analysis.
SB 545 would prohibit the construction of the I-710 "gap"
between its existing terminus in the City of Los Angeles and the
I-210 freeway in Pasadena as a surface or above-grade highway,
thereby limiting any future construction to a tunnel. This bill
would also revise an existing exemption that allows Caltrans to
construct the I-710 freeway project without an agreement with an
affected city or county by authorizing Caltrans to construct the
segment of freeway solely as a tunnel if an impasse has existed
for at least 20 years because an agreement cannot be reached
with affected local agencies.
This bill would remove from future consideration any potential
surface or above-grade alignment as an option for the completion
of the I-710 gap closure, effectively requiring construction of
a tunnel by using tunnel boring technology should a decision be
made to
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SB 545 (Cedillo)
close the gap. Staff notes that even without this bill it is
highly unlikely that this project would be constructed as a
traditional surface or above-grade highway since numerous
options have been explored and rejected over the past decades.
A bored tunnel, however, is likely the most costly option for
constructing this project; Caltrans indicates that preliminary
estimates of project costs for constructing a tunnel to close
the I-710 gap are approximately $6 - $8 billion. To the extent
that this bill removes the possibility that this project could
be constructed using a less expensive option, this bill would
create cost pressures potentially in the hundreds of millions of
dollars. Due to the potential costs of the I-710 gap closure,
and difficulties in reaching consensus with affected local
agencies, it is unclear if this project will ever be
constructed.
Last November, Los Angeles County voters approved Measure R, a
thirty-year local transportation sales tax. These revenues are
dedicated for allocation to specified projects in an expenditure
plan, which includes $780 million for the I-710 "North Gap
Closure" tunnel project. The approval of the sales tax placed
the project into MTA's thirty-year county transportation plan.
The completion of this segment of I-710 has been included in the
regional transportation plan since 1989 and in the regional
transportation improvement program, the multimodal
transportation capital outlay program for the region, since
1991.