Tom Lantos tunnels at Devil's Slide open at the end of the month

Half Moon Bay Review/Clay Lambert, 3/12/13.  "Devil's Slide tunnels to open last week of March."

 Tom Lantos, 2/1/28 - 2/11/08

Inside a tunnel

"Twin tunnels at Devil’s Slide on Highway 1 will be opened to traffic on March 25 or 26. At 11 a.m. on March 25, dignitaries from across the state will converge with the locals who made it all happen to commemorate the state’s first tunnel proj ect in nearly 50 years. Later that day or early the next morning the tunnels will open to traffic, according to Caltrans spokesman Bob Haus. The state transportation agency made the announcement late Tuesday afternoon, though information on the opening has been leaking out for days.  

....  Moving forward with the tunnels hasn’t always been easy: Their journey has been fraught with controversy as interest groups advocated what they thought best. Some argued vehemently for an inland bypass as early as 1960. Environmentalists opposed that notion, arguing successfully that the tunnels would do the least damage to the area’s fragile ecosystem while guaranteeing a passable roadway.

Tunnels, Pacifica side

The tunnels that stand today were finally made possible in 1995 with the passage of the countywide Measure T. However, ground wasn’t broken for the project until 2005. Contractors from Kiewit Pacific Co. predicted that the entire project would be completed by 2011 for $272 million. The tunnels’ opening date is at least two years late and the final tab was tens of millions of dollars more than initially expected."  Read article.

Related articles -   Mercury News/Associated Press, 3/13/13.  "The tunnels cost $439 million to build and took seven years to complete." NBC Bay Area, 2/25/13, "Cutting-Edge Devil's Slide Tunnels Poised to open." The article includes a brief embedded video, lowe left side photograph from this article. The Daily News, 11/13/12, "Tunnel opening delayed," right side photograph from this article. Half Moon Bay Review, 7/9/08."Tunnels named for angel of Devil's Slide"  "The twin tunnels under construction at Devil's Slide will be named in honor of the congressman who worked for more than 20 years to find a solution to the Coastide's traffic troubles."   And, Fix Pacifica reprint articles.

Submitted by Jim Wagner

Posted by Kathy Meeh