Letter: Alternative to the loop road
Publisher’s note: This letter was sent to the South Lake Tahoe City Council and Lake Tahoe News.
At a recent meeting, I believe I heard that two-thirds of the traffic on Highway 50 drives through the casino corridor without stopping.
Les Wright
I mentioned my suggestion before at two meetings that I attended: that we need a Plan F that would tunnel under existing Highway 50 between Tahoe Meadows and just past the new roundabout by the Edgewood Golf Course. Through traffic would go underground and get out of town quickly. Develop a round about at Park Avenue as well as the other end by Edgewood Golf Course.
Advantages:
1. Noise, air and visual pollution of two-thirds of the drive-through traffic goes underground.
2. Local traffic uses existing loop roads at Park Avenue and Edgewood Golf Course area to enter casinos and other businesses.
3. Have no surface auto traffic between the casinos, which would make that area a true pedestrian mall.
4. No need to tear out existing housing to create the five-lane highway around the casinos.
5. No expense for condemnation and legal fees to obtain the right-of-way of the new five-lane highway.
6. Relocation problem for residents from proposed new highway goes away.
7. Redevelopment of same so called blighted area is handled by the city of South Lake Tahoe on their timeline.
8. The two states and federal government pay the cost as it is all a state/federal highway.
I believe this is the best solution visually, environmentally, as well as legally the easiest. And it would get done sooner.
The cost would be high and the down time would be hard on the casino core, but the results would be entirely more satisfying to all concerned.
Perhaps excavation of Highway 50 could take place the same time they close Highway 50 over Echo Summit for this work.
Note the quick and efficient excavation work on the new freeway that bypasses Carson City that is just about done.
And in closing, the local public needs a say in these alternatives.
Les Wright, South Lake Tahoe
Les- some good ideas but why continue to focus on the casino core when there is so many other needs. I would rather see a highway 50 tunnel at Lake View Commons. This was brought up at the steering committee meetings for Lakeview Commons and quickly shot down as too expensive and Caltrans would never go for it. It would make a lot more sense to locals to have a walkable plaza between the campground and Lakeview Commons. What a neat park that could be. How about a true bike trail around the lake. I would love to see that 100 million that the Tahoe Transportation District wants to spend on the loop road go toward safe shoulders and bike trails around the lake. Its amazing with a resource as beautiful as Lake Tahoe and you can’t even safely bike around it. On a much smaller scale; how about a safe way to cross hgwy 89 around 10th street. Its truly death defying to cross now, especially during the summer. I cringe when I see the entire family trying to bike across in a spread out fashion. Just some ideas- and the public definitely needs a say in how we want to improve transportation.
Great idea! and in the long run MUCH cheaper than the existing proposed loop road!
Too many issues not addressed…too much INSIDER information not available to the public.
All, Pie in the Sky. We do not need a new fangled Loop Road, nor any super-expensive tunnels.
PERIOD.
While some people believe a loop road and improved affordable housing may not be needed at the present it is important to consider the needs of the future. Needs of every type change over time (which is why people plan for their retirement) and while everything may seem adequate at the present it is necessary to plan and prepare for the future. Not doing so is irresponsible and succeeding generations will likely be questioning the shortsightedness of their predecessors. SLT’s crumbling roads and other infrastructure are a prime example of this community’s predecessors not considering and preparing for the needs of the future. Nothing stays the same and nothing is free.