highway expansion

While I was away, one story seemed to dominate the transportation news coverage, the 52 hour closure of a stretch of the I-405 from July 16 to early in the morning of July 18 that is part of the Sepulveda Pass Widening Project.  News casters broadcast breathless reports of impending doom, reporters seemed to produce oracle-like pieces and politicians held press conferences warning constituents to stay far-far away.  Even after hanging out with the web team for Metro last night at the LA Weekly Party, I'm not entirely sure whether or not Metro is teasing with the "Countdown to Closure" ticking clock on their website.

(Yesterday, a new advertisement appeared in our sidebar advertising a public meeting on the North Spring Street Bridge Improvement project on Tuesday, May 10, at 6:00 P.M. at the Lincoln Heights Senior Citizen Center at 2323 Workman Avenue.  Below is a summary of the project, most of which was written before the advertisement was placed. - DN)

I have written about how amorphous the scoping process for Metro and Caltran’s 710 gap-closure/ big dig project has been.   I’ve now given shape to my own opinions in comments for the scoping phase of their environmental review (which ends on April 14th). Please submit comments if you are interested in the future of freeways and transportaiton in the region.

Now that the advertisement for the 710 Conversations Virtual Meeting and Open House is down off the sidebar, it seems a good time to review the concept and execution of the Virtual Meeting and Open House.

Last week's poll asking you to vote on what name L.A. Streetsblog will use to describe the 710 Extension Project was easily Streetsblog's most popular poll to date, with 252 total votes.  Two project names got sixty votes each to move on to this final poll.  One week from today, either Art Dean's "Golden Freight Freeway" or Joanne Nuckols' "SR-710, L.A.'s Big Dig" will become the official name that Streetsblog uses to describe the project from here on out.

It seems suggestive that Metro and Caltran’s just launched SR-710 Conversations public outreach process features a timeline of transportation milestones printed as a board game. It remains to be seen whether it will be a game that the public plays: a creative rethinking of mobility needs in the San Gabriel Valley and Northeast Los Angeles, or a game that plays the public: going through the motions of input on environmental studies for  a 710 ‘gap closure’ tunnel that agencies intend to pursue regardless of any alternative proposals.

As long time Streetsblog readers are well aware, our editorial team believes that language matters.  It's why there's a slew of stories arguing that using the word "accident" as a synonym for "crash" is both incorrect and insidious.  Last week, a reader pointed out to me that Metro, in both press materials and on The Source, continually refer to the I-710 Extension project as the "I-710 Gap Project."