Draft report gives new look at 710

“I think now we need to realize that it’s going to be a lot closer; the impact is going to be felt a lot closer to home than we may have thought,” Najarian said.

The route that would go through South Pasadena to connect with the 210 Freeway has the largest range of geological conditions, which could affect the efficiency of tunnel construction, according to the draft report.

But Nat Read, chairman of the 710 Freeway Coalition, a pro-tunnel group of business, labor and government representatives, argued that the 2 Freeway route makes less sense when other factors are taken into account — such as route length and traffic congestion relief on other freeways.

“There are so many factors other than geological and seismic,” he said.

But many city officials in the surrounding areas have pledged to fight the extension regardless of its location.

“All of these are negative routes for La Cañada,” said La Cañada City Councilman David Spence.

The study results come weeks after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed a bill that would have made the tunnel the only option for a 710 extension — legislation which was heavily lobbied for by South Pasadena officials.

But while the governor’s veto kept the controversial surface route back on the table, Caltrans officials have said the potential tunnel remains the agency’s primary focus.

Close to $800 million in Measure R funds are earmarked for the project, Najarian said.

Since Caltrans proposed the tunnel concept in 2002 as an alternative to the above-ground route, the tunnel has faced residential and political opposition in much of the area. Read said the study’s route-neutral nature created unneeded opposition from cities like Glendale.

“It created great confusion in a lot of neighborhoods that are not logical routes for the completion of the 710,” he said. “Communities that had never been involved in the 710 debate were dragged into this because Caltrans, by the terms of a fair route neutral study, had to include them.”