LA Mayoral Candidates Talk About Possible Tunnel Under Sepulveda Pass
FAIRFAX DISTRICT (CBSLA.com) — Scheduling conflicts turned what was supposed to be a debate between LA mayoral candidates Wendy Greuel and Eric Garcetti into separate interviews that touched on the topic of a tunnel under the Sepulveda pass.
CBS2/KCAL9's Dave Bryan was the moderator of Wednesday's event, in which each candidate was interviewed for 30 minutes as the race for the mayoral election heats up.
The candidates focused, in part, on the issue of transportation, just hours after Los Angeles was rated the worst traffic city in the U.S.
The Sepulveda pass, specifically, was the subject as both candidates spoke on the idea of tunneling under the pass to increase traffic flow.
"I want to have public transportation in Los Angeles in my lifetime and in my son's lifetime," Greuel told Bryan. "We've all lived through the carpool lane experience. I think, again, it is going to be much easier and faster if you go underneath."
The candidates have displayed moments of disagreement over the past couple of months, but this was one subject the two agreed on.
"Having a transit which, in my opinion has to be rail, probably should be heavy rail, not light rail," Garcetti said. "Because if you look at the number of passengers we have to alleviate, light rail probably wouldn't do enough. [That rail would] go from the north San Fernando Valley basically to LAX, including a transit tunnel through the 405 pass that would allow you to be able to go essentially from Sherman Oaks to UCLA in five or ten minutes."
The topic of a tunnel under the Sepulveda pass has been talked about for years, but the city has never mustered up the money to start the project.
