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Instead of spending $3 billion on a Transbay Terminal
that will do nothing to reduce traffic congestion
its time to spend it on something that WILL drastically
reduce Traffic Congestion and air-pollution - the
19th Avenue Tunnel Bypass.
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Nineteenth Avenue and Park Presidio Boulevard was originally to have been
bypassed by a Freeway (planned many years ago).
This Tunnel far outweighs any Terminal as a solution to Traffic
Congestion for Bay Area commuters
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"The
cost-benefit ratio of the
Transbay Terminal is really absurd,"
said Bill
Blackwell, a retired Bechtel architect,
who contends that the new terminal costs aren't justified by the improvements
for transit riders. "People seem to think we need a new monument,"
Blackwell said.
"We don't need a fancy new terminal.
It
doesn't do anything to enhance transit use."
A big reason for continued skepticism is the
Transbay's $3 billion price tag. To raise the bulk of the money, backers
relied on voters to approve several large transportation measures.
The regional ballot
measure to boost bridge tolls,
steers $150 million
toward the project. Another $270
million came when San Franciscans renewed their city's
half-cent sales tax in
November 2003. A statewide
high-speed rail
bond was dropped from the November 2004 election, if successful, would have contributed
$127 million.
The biggest piece of the financial puzzle is the
$500 million that the city
hopes to steer toward the terminal through redevelopment of the blocks around
it. To raise the money, the city is crafting a plan that could allow the highest
residential towers in the city: one 55-story structure at Main and Howard
streets and another at First and Folsom. There would be four other residential
towers at least 300 feet tall along Main and Folsom.
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Tunneling Technology
Improvements
 | "The technique of
building underground structures has made considerable progress in recent
years. Construction has become less difficult and costs increasingly better
controlled. |
|
Significant improvements
have been made with regard to pollution, thus highly simplifying usual
ventilation problems. |
| The safety level of
urban tunnels is higher than on most surface urban roads. |
| The construction of
surface and even more so elevated road structures is meeting in a number of
countries with increasing opposition in urban areas, involving high extra
costs or making it impossible to implement the proposed solutions.
|
| Finally, the emergence
of the concept of tunnels reserved for light vehicles makes it possible to
consider building road tunnels in places where this would previously have been
physically impossible, while at the same time considerably reducing costs for
comparable capacities. |
| All these reasons lead
to the idea that in a number of urban places only road tunnels will be able
to cope with capacity increase requirements and alleviate surface road traffic,
or clear obstacles, and that they are therefore set to significantly develop
in forthcoming years."
1st World Conference
on Urban Road Tunnels |
|
|
World Road Association,
PIARC Technical Reports on Tunnels
| Cross Section Design of Bidirectional Road Tunnels |
| Cross Section Geometry in Uni-directionnal Tunnels |
| Pollution by Nitrogen Dioxide in Road Tunnels |
| Road Tunnels: reduction of Operating Costs |
| Fire and Smoke Control in Road Tunnels |
| Road Safety in Tunnels |
| Road Tunnels: Emissions, Environment, Ventilation |
| Classification of Tunnels, Existing Guidelines and Experiences,
Recommendations |
| The First Road Tunnel - A Planner Guide for Countries Without Previous
Experience of New Road Tunnels |
|
 |
Major US Road
Tunnel Projects
-
http://www.mrtunnel.com/frame2.htm
| Paris Berlin Copenhagen others .... |
|
Central Artery/Third Harbor Tunnel, MASSACHUSETTS
http://www.bigdig.com |
| Port
of Miami Tunnel Project, FLORIDA |
| Wolf
Creek Pass Tunnel, COLORADO |
|
Devil's Slide Tunnel, CALIFORNIA |
|
Gowanus Expressway, NEW YORK
|
| 3rd Hampton
Roads Crossing, VIRGINIA |
| LBJ
Corridor Study, TEXAS |
|
Hartsfield/Atlanta International Airport Tunnel, GEORGIA |
| Drumanard
Tunnel, KENTUCKY |
| RTE 9A –
Lower Manhattan Tunnel, NEW YORK |
|
Central Artery/Third Harbor Tunnel, MASSACHUSETTS |
|
Whittier Tunnel, ALASKA |
| Wolf Creek
Pass Tunnel, COLORADO |
| Lambert-St.
Louis International Airport Tunnel, MISSOURI |
|
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