State Senate: 710 Extension Must be Buried

The state senate decided today that any extension of I-710 to Pasadena from its current terminus in Alhambra must be underground. State bill 545, authored by Gil Cedillo (D-Los Angeles), removes any possibility of a surface option in the controversial interstate extension. The Long Beach Freeway, which runs roughly from the Port of Long Beach in the south to the northern city limits of Los Angeles, was originally intended to connect to I-210, the crowded east-west Foothill Freeway in Pasadena. But the final segment, which was to run through the city of South Pasadena, was staunchly blocked by residents and civic leaders.

South Pasadena, a city of only 24,000, has been opposed to the extension for three decades now, concerned that a freeway might split the city in two, and tarnish its cherished small-town character. But in August of last year, the city council voted 4-1 in support of a bill that would seek private cash for an underground freeway, discreetly supporting the extension. They cited their change of heart to a change in the author's (Cedillo) language that would eliminate consideration of the above-ground option, and collect money from the sale of state-owned property along the intended route.

In the 1960s, the state Department of Transportation purchased hundreds of properties in the parts of South Pasadena where the intended freeway would run. Today, these mostly vacant properties are cumulatively valued at a mind boggling $300 million. Cash from that sale alone would be enough to get the project rolling, despite the prohibitive costs of burying a freeway underground. Although the state would be imprudent to invest those much-needed funds in a not-so-needed freeway.