California May Build Tunnel in Quake Region
`Traffic is so bad along the eastern rim of Los Angeles’ suburban ring that regional planners are considering the once unthinkable an 11-mile tunnel through a mountain range in earthquake country.
Critics question the logic of building a multibillion-dollar project in a region so prone to earthquakes that an alternate proposal for a double-decker highway was deemed too dangerous. The tunnel would begin barely a mile from a fault that produced a 6.0-magnitude earthquake about a century ago.
“It’s absolutely absurd to have a tunnel 700 feet below ground in earthquake country,” said Cathryn DeYoung, mayor of Laguna Niguel and a vocal opponent. “I mean, would you want to be in that tunnel?”‘
