Devils Slide Road, Lantos Tunnels

SAN MATEO COUNTY, CALIF. --Tom Lantos Tunnels (named after the late congressman,) have been constructed to keep traffic flowing between the San Mateo County coastal cities of Pacifica and Montara, which accesses San Francisco. They are the first tunnels built in California in more than 50 years. Since 1937 the coastal Devil's Slide highway carved into mountains and cliffs far above the beach and Pacific Ocean has connected locals, tourists and commuters with San Francisco. It gets its name from its treacherous conditions such as hairpin turns and landslides that have closed the highway to commuter traffic for months on end, creating 45-minute to hour-long detours and traffic snarls. Devils Slide has had eight major slides since it opened in 1937. Some love the spectacular, winding Devils Slide with its spectacular views. Locals have the road memorized as they head into the regions frequent, famous fog banks or see sunshine and even migrating whales in the distance. And those who love the feeling of an open road, the new tunnels are daunting--even scary.

These are not the first and only tunnels in the Bay Area. On SR24 between Oakland and the East Bay cities of Lafayette, Orinda, Walnut Creek, the Caldecott Tunnel has provided millions upon millions of travelers safe journeys through the years, except for a disaster in 1982 that still has some remembering and sweating each time they travel through Caldecott. In the accident a tanker carrying gasoline collided with other cars and trucks. Fire and smoke inside the north tube killed seven people. That tunnel was closed for months but was repaired and reopened.

PACIFICA TUNNELS

• $439 million cost to build a pair of tunnels
• HNTB Corp. took 7 years to build them
• 2 tunnels are approx. 1 mile-long each, can withstand magnitude 7.5 to 8.0 earthquake
• Exhaust fans, carbon monoxide sensors and a pair of 1,000-foot bridges 125 feet high
• 10 fireproof shelters are located between the double bores
• Staff of 15 monitors tunnel via remote cameras
• Austrian design is first in U.S.
• White walls, fake retaining wall boulders

• Pacifica, Calif. Great Hideaway South of San Francisco